


Genetic Experiment

by TheKiwiBird



Series: R.P.M. Archives [2]
Category: Power Rangers R.P.M.
Genre: Chaptered, Detailed battle injuries warning, Dialogue Heavy, Gen, Gender or Sex Swap, Level 9001 Genre Savviness in effect, Plots of the week that work for once, Post "Doctor K" and Pre "Embodied", Pseudoscience that works in context, Slapstick, Wordcount: around 21.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-14
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:15:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 20,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24186493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheKiwiBird/pseuds/TheKiwiBird
Summary: Venjix grows tired of being outdone by the Rangers time after time. He finally devises a plan, and an Attack Bot, that strikes at the heart of Project Ranger; the Ranger's unique, and theoretically delicate, attachments to their morphers.
Series: R.P.M. Archives [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1745590
Kudos: 8





	1. The Breach

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Pterakyn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pterakyn/gifts).



> So, like the other "experiment" fic, this is a continuation of that series which I wrote, but did not post on any major fic site, a great many years ago. My writing broski Pterakyn more or less encouraged me to post this fic, as well as the other two RPM fics I've done, up on this account.
> 
> This, like "Social Experiment", went mostly unchanged from its original message board posting outside of minor doc-format-to-doc-format touch-ups, and some light polishings of some stuff that, with a fresh-ish pair of eyeballs, I noticed were a bit wonky/left something hanging and/or confusing.
> 
> So please enjoy this as much as you did the last.

_Venjix had grown tired of constantly losing to the defenders of Corinth. Venjix had spent thousands of hours thinking of ways to destroy the defenders of Corinth. He thought of ways to destroy their powers, destroy their defenses. He thought and thought and thought, and with every solution he came up with, the defenders of Corinth had undermined his plot._

_But this one, this one..._

"...You're going to throw a giant robot syringe into the city?" Tenaya snarked, her arms crossed and a confused look etched into her humanoid face. 

_"Silence. The Needlebot is programmed to inject the Rangers with a solution suspending millions of nanobots programmed with a very specific task. Your task is to get the Needlebot into the city so it can complete its task. All it needs to do is infect at least one of the Rangers, and the mission will be complete. Keep it operational until it does so."_

"So I don't need to have it inject this nanobot solution into all of the Rangers?" 

_"The more Rangers the Needlebot infects, the better. But yes, it only needs to infect one for the Needlebot to complete its task."_

"Fine by me. The giant syringe is as good as in." 

\-----

The RPM Rangers halfway jumped out of their respective vehicles as Tenaya, Needlebot, and a small cadre of Grinders mowed their way into the city. 

"Stop right there!" Scott shouted, brandishing his Street Saber. 

"How does this woman manage to slither her way into the city time after time?" Flynn thought aloud. 

"It doesn't matter; she doesn't ever get far anyways!" Summer commented. 

In the lab, Dr. K frantically typed away, trying to draw up the schematics info on Needlebot. "I'm finding difficulty trying to pinpoint exactly where this Needlebot's true payload weapon is, because the energy output from this robot suggests that it's a model that has a payload delivery system, but I can only say for sure that the needle on its head is non-lethal besides its potential to be used as a thrusting weapon." 

"Thanks for the info, Doc." Scott replied over his morpher. "You heard the doctor; watch out for the big needle on its head, and keep your eyes out for a hidden weapon." 

Dillon charged forwards and immediately beelined for Tenaya, while the other Ranger rushed for the Grinders and Needlebot. 

Needlebot dodged and blocked Summer's jumpkick after realizing that it couldn't deliver its viral payload while she was moving through the air. It spotted Scott and ran at him, but was quickly slashed up several times with the Street Saber. It ran back towards Tenaya as its systems began to run a tad slower than it wanted to after the devastating blows. 

Ziggy dove and dived around Grinders as Dillon fought Tenaya. He summoned his Turbo Axe and mindlessly swung it around, striking several Grinders and bringing them to an immediate halt. 

Dillon blocked Tenaya's cross punch to the face and tossed it aside before trying to drive his elbow into her titanium skull. She dodged the blow, then punched him in the gut and quickly followed with a kick to the face. He stumbled slightly and veered into Ziggy's warpath. He barely had time to duck around Ziggy's uncontrolled swing. 

"Hey! Watch where you're going with that thing!" Dillon scolded angrily. 

"Sorry! Sorry...make way!" Ziggy shouted back nervously, directing the Axe's weight forwards and allowing himself to teeter along with it. 

Needlebot saw Dillon standing alone and charged. As Ziggy twirled around with his axe, he saw the Needlebot aiming for Dillon and gasped. 

"Dillon! Watch out!" Ziggy steadied himself and used the Axe's weight to help him race forwards. He swung the Axe around and hacked off the top point of the Needlebot's head, rendering it useless as a weapon. 

Tenaya smiled softly and charged at Dillon while Ziggy continued to fight the Needlebot. "Your destruction is near, Ranger Black. Needlebot is full of surprises." 

"Ziggy! Watch your back!" 

"I'm trying," Ziggy used the axe as a steady shield against a palm strike from Needlebot. "but my front is much more important right now!" 

He continued to block the Needlebot's palm strikes, and as Tenaya saw him succeeding, she growled. She kicked Dillon backwards with a heavy force, knocking him into Ziggy and causing him to drop his Turbo Axe. 

Needlebot fired off a syringe hidden under its palm at Dillon, which the Black Ranger narrowly avoided. At the sight of its failure, it targeted Ziggy, who was within striking range and scrambling to grab his axe. 

He grabbed it and held it up to block, yet Needlebot's shot drove directly under where the axe blade protected and drove through his armor, piercing his aorta at a point between his solar plexus and stomach. 

Ziggy attempted to scream in pain, but no sound could come out of him as he dropped out of his armor, staying frozen in the failed defending position. After several stifled attempts at trying to catch his breath, he reached down and pulled the syringe out before collapsing. 

"Ziggy!" Dillon shouted, catching the attention of the rest of the Rangers. Tenaya stomped Dillon's head and grinned. 

"We have met our goal; one Ranger has been infected with Venjix's nanovirus. Today, our fight is finished." She kicked his head to the side, rolling him onto his back as the others gathered around them. 

"Nobody touch him! We don't know what Venjix's attack bot has infected him with! He could be carrying a nanobot-shielded pandemic, for all we know!" Scott stated, pushing everyone aside. 

"I'll drive him to the base's medical center. Dr. K, call ahead to have them set up a quarantine." Flynn stated. 

"You do realize that we'll have to quarantine you as well, to ensure that whatever Venjix has injected him with is not an airborne virus." Dr. K stated. 

Ziggy curled up in a ball and whimpered as he dropped the syringe. "Doctor, I doubt that if he's contagious, that I'll even make it to the hospital in time before it starts to affect me. Ziggy looks like he's already feeling it." 

"Well then, I'd suggest that you stop talking and get him to the medical center." 

"Right on it." Flynn replied as he picked Ziggy up and carried him to his jeep. 

\-----

"Aye, how's Ziggy doing?" Flynn asked the camera in his quarantine cell, one which was connected directly to Dr. K's right monitor, a screen which was half filled with Flynn and half filled with Ziggy. 

Ziggy's half of the screen showed Ziggy, half asleep and lying on a hospital bed with wires and an IV drip hanging down and around him, all plugged into him. His vitals sat glued to the corner of his half of his screen, all reading slightly below normal, every so often spiking up for a minute or so as his body would twitch painfully. 

"Operator Series Green appears to be stable for the moment. Once they put him on the morphine drip, he stopped screaming in agony, at least. He's not contagious, and neither are you luckily, so I have petitioned for your release." 

"Any luck cracking open that nanobot?" Dillon asked, his arms crossed as he hovered around her. 

"None so far. As expected, Venjix has made them all but uncrackable. It's going to take a while before I can hack into their programming to find out what their purpose is, and what they're doing to Ranger Green." She looked up over her shoulder at him. "You standing over me like this isn't going to get my work done any faster." 

"I wanna know exactly how Ziggy's doing." 

"If you wish, I can maintain a comlink with you while you wait outside." 

"No, I want to watch him." 

Dr. K looked away, feeling heavily annoyed. She closed out the transmission with Flynn as she spotted doctors walking into his cell, letting the entire screen be swallowed by the surveillance camera's view of Ziggy. 

Ziggy shouted in pain as he suddenly jolted; as his BPM skyrocketed, the Green Ranger's arms and legs stretched out widely of their own volition. 

"He's having major muscle contractions, it looks like. Hm." Dr. K noted aloud. 

"What do you mean by that?" 

"Nothing, other than the nanobot virus seems to be autonomously making his muscles spasm. I've already taken extra precautions when he arrives in the lab ahead of time, and it looks like I may have to if my theory is true." She opened a drawer, revealing some sort of jury-rigged tazer weapon. 

"What're you bringing him in here for?" 

"To run tests after his vitals have become stable for a period of three hours. That's yet to happen." Her eyes seemed to linger toward a time counter in the corner of the screen. "Feel free to return to your quarters whenever you please. The sooner, the better." 

"I'm coming to check up on him in the morning, you understand?" 

"If he is here, then fine." 

Dillon marched out with a defiant tone in his stride. 

\-----

_Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep._

Dr. K turned her head and looked; the time counter flashed three hours. After the earlier incident, little more than a quickening pulse had occurred, it seemed, and even though she still hadn't managed to crack into the nanobot, Ziggy seemed to have survive whatever attack it had wrought on his system. He slept soundly, giving a soft moan of discomfort every once in a while, as the morphine drip had rendered him unable to do much else.

As she looked at him, something looked off, but she couldn't immediately tell what it was. Coupled with her earlier theories, she felt comfortable with setting her EMP taser on the desk in front of her where she could easily grab it. For all she knew, the slight offset in his appearance were the warning signs of a converted human, primed and readied to tear the building inside out.

Despite her concerns, she called for him to be moved into her lab, and Ziggy, still attached to his IV drip and vitals monitor, sat to her far left. She sighed and transferred all of her work into the rectangular bubble/work area she had Ziggy moved into. 

She slid across the floor in her chair, stopping perfectly on the dime in front of her workstation's desk and monitors. After a few moments, she slapped on a face mask, slipped on a pair of sterile gloves, grabbed her EMP taser, then approached Ziggy's resting body to look him over closely. 

_Beepbeepbeepbeep! Beepbeepbeepbeep!_

Dr. K turned around as the vital spike alarm sounded. Ziggy's arms wrapped around himself as he screamed in agony. Dr. K held the taser up in defense, but quickly realized she didn't need it. 

After what seemed like forever, Ziggy's eyes shot open as his heavy breathing slowed down. She sluggishly turned his head to look over at Dr. K, who had dropped the EMP taser in shock, her eyes wide and her head cocked slightly to the side. 

"...Doc...tor...K...?" He muttered softly. 

Dr. K refused to respond, too stunned to utter words. Ziggy attempted to focus his thoughts, and he awkwardly sat up. An awkward weight pulled him forwards as he stopped himself, and his head jerked forwards. 

He gave a strange look at the hospital gown, as the gown had pooled up around his chest. He slowly lifted an arm and attempted to press the gown down. His hand was abruptly stopped by a soft and jello-like mound, and he gave a weird look. He attempted to do the same to the other side of his chest, with the same result. 

He pulled his hospital gown open and looked down, gasping and hyperventilating again as he quickly closed it shut again. His hand slowly traveled downwards and after a moment, he gave a look of terror and quickly looked back over at Dr. K. 

All Dr. K could do was blink and stare. 

"What happened...what happened to me?" He squeaked, his voice piercing her ears in a higher pitch than usual. 

She blinked a few more times and attempted to speak. After a moment, as Ziggy's bottom lip began to quiver, she finally regained the ability to coherently converse. "I...don't know. ...My theory was wrong." 

Ziggy teared up and looked away from her, slowly beginning to cry. 

"Your bout of distress confuses me. This is one of the better scenarios that could have happened to you." 

"I'm a girl!" Ziggy shouted, his voice bouncing off the walls. He gasped and clasped his hand over his mouth. He blinked only once before a pair of tears streamed down his face. 

"You are still alive, and so is everyone else in this building. Just hours ago, we were at high alert with the assumption that your body was being used as a catalyst to activate an airborne pathogen capable of swiftly eliminating all human life inside of Corinth's dome, starting with you, I, and the rest of the members of Project Ranger. This is honestly one of the better scenarios, and possibly one of the least painful ones I theorized would occur." 

"Look at me, Dr. K! Look at me! I'm a wreck!" 

"You...look healthy despite the obvious fact that your gender is the opposite of what it usually is." Ziggy began to cry harder, further confusing Dr. K. She picked up her EMP taser and sighed. "Would you like to sleep until morning? I can increase your morphine drip to ease you to sleep." 

"How can I sleep like this?" 

"...Just the same as you sleep normally." 

"How can I do anything like this?" Ziggy began to hyperventilate. "How can...how...how can I face the others like this? I can't go out there like this!" 

Dr. K looked sighed deeply and took a moment to think. "I will try to come up with a plan which will quell your concerns tomorrow morning. Right now, I need to think of how to handle Ranger Series Black when he arrives later." 

"Dillon's coming in here?" His voice cracked and squealed like a set of tire brakes. 

"I could not get him to agree to leaving my side otherwise. I agreed to let him visit you in a few hours." 

"Please...please don't let him in! I can't let anyone see me like this, especially him! Him or Flynn! Oh god, not them..." 

"Why not?" 

Ziggy sniffled and wiped his eyes. "You have no clue, do you?" 

"No." 

"...It's...it's a guy thing." 

"Oh?" 

"They'll never let me live this down. And...they'll oogle me. I don't want to be oogled!" He looked towards the end of the bed. "Oh god, Scott...Scott, no, no no..." Ziggy shook his head. 

"Series Red as well?" 

"Oh I can hear him snickering and see him staring at my ass...god, I could never live that down..." 

"Why are you so worried about this?" 

"Because! Because...it's a guy thing, I guess. I don't know...I just...I'm afraid." 

"There's no need to be afraid. You are fortunate to have such an understanding group of teammates, and I highly doubt your appearance will affect anyone's perception of you." 

"Fine, then...just not now. I'm not comfortable with this now. Is that better?" 

Dr. K stopped to think. "...Oh, this is a matter of self-adjustment to an uncomfortable and highly improbable situation. I see." Dr. K nodded. "Well, in that case, I will call in Series Yellow and-" 

"No! Not her, either." 

"Why? Series Yellow is well-known to be very understanding." 

"I don't...see, she's...gossipy." 

"Gossipy?" 

"She'll tell the others everything." 

"...Oh. I see." She looked to the side. "If you're uncomfortable with your fellow teammates, then who are you comfortable with?" 

"You." 

Dr. K gave a look of shock. "Me?" 

"You...you're honest, and you don't care one way or the other." 

"It's my job to be impartial to social matters." 

"That makes me feel better." Ziggy sniffled and coughed as he calmed down. 

"I...I will think about this. Right now, your body is probably well beyond the point of exhaustion. You even look overtired. Go to sleep." 

"Not a problem." Ziggy gave a soft smile and lied down. "No need to amp up the morphine, Doc; I can sleep on my own." 

"If you insist." She watched as he sighed deeply and closed his eyes and halfway covered himself with the blanket. She walked over and adjusted the blanket before walking back to her desk and shoving the EMP taser back in the bottom desk drawer. She sat down, sighing deeply, and opening an empty page in her wordpad to focus her thoughts.


	2. To Make Light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dr. K comes up with an alibi to make all parties agreeable, while Ziggy does what he can to assess, process, and deal with the personal catastrophe.
> 
> The perceived effectiveness of either temporary panacea is up to interpretation.

"Operator Series Green." Ziggy felt a light jostling of his shoulder as he slowly woke up. "Operator Series Green, it is vital that you wake up immediately." 

"What? Did they get bigger while I slept or something?" Ziggy muttered. 

"Did what get bigger?" 

"...Nevermind." Ziggy yawned and looked over at Dr. K. Her headphones and voice warper device sat in her right hand, a piece of paper in the other. "What's wrong?" 

"I need you to test this quickly." She handed him the headphones. "If I know Series Black's sleep schedule well enough, he'll be here in about fifteen minutes. That's enough time for me to set up this illusion." 

Ziggy put the headphones on and adjusted the microphone. "So what's the-" The squeaky sound of his new voice was replaced with a reasonable facsimile of his old voice. "Oh, wow! This sounds like me!" 

"Good, I properly calibrated the sound on the first try. Okay, now I need you to look this over, so that we both have the same alibi." 

"Ooh, we're telling white lies now, are we?" Ziggy grinned as he looked over the sheet of paper. "Photosensitive, huh? That means I'm allergic to light or something?" 

"Yes, it does. It will give the proper excuse to seal the blast wall and keep the lights off to keep from having anyone see you. You said you didn't want to be seen, so this was my best idea." She gave a look. "Can you suggest anything better? I'm not prone to lying." 

"And I am?" 

"You used to be a con artist, if I've remembered correctly." 

"There's a difference between lying for profit and lying for self-preservation. Sometimes they're the same thing, but usually not." 

"Lying is lying to me." 

"Well, I'm decent at conning people, but lying outright to people I trust is something I'm horrible at." 

"You lied to Fresno Bob fairly well." 

"Because I don't trust him." 

"I thought the cartels were all about trusting each other and functioning as a team to commit crimes." 

"No, the cartels, especially the Scorpion Cartel, is about hope; the hope that somebody doesn't suddenly decide to kill you because you upset them." 

"Why would anyone be a part of that?" 

"Because I'm not good at anything else besides lying, cheating, and stealing." 

Dr. K was unsure how to respond, and gave him a few moments silence as he read the sheet over. "It looks good. I can go along with that." He handed the sheet back to her. 

As she took it, she tried to give him a look of sincerity. "If it makes you feel any better, you're the member of Project Ranger who has shown the most improvement in their tenure. So I wouldn't say that lying, cheating, and stealing are your best qualities." 

"...Really?" 

"I'm not prone to lying." 

Ziggy began to blush as Dr. K began to walk away. "He'll be here any minute, so be ready. I'm shutting the blast wall now." She sat down in her lab chair outside of Ziggy's chamber and resumed her attempts to crack into the nanobot. 

A few minutes later, Dillon walked in. "Where's Ziggy?" 

"Operator Series Green has..." She looked away, trying her best to not break face. "he has undergone a genetic mutation." 

"What? What happened to him?" 

"He's grown incredibly photosensitive. Both artificial and ultraviolet light sears his skin; I can't allow him to enter any room with any kind of lighting at the moment." 

"So I can't see him?" 

"I'm afraid not." 

"Hey, Dillon. It's okay, I'm fine, really!" Ziggy chimed in. 

"Ziggy?" He walked over and looked at the monitor, seeing nothing but blackness and vital signs. The readings were normal. "So this photosensitiveness can't be cured by just wearing his Ranger suit all the time?" 

"A few problems; I'm unsure if the nanovirus will try to attack and/or convert the Ranger technology the next time he morphs, and I'm unsure how the technology will react if activated for prolonged amounts of time." 

"So you're just gonna lock Ziggy up in a box until you find out how to fix him?" 

"That's okay with me, Dillon. Dr. K talked to me about this earlier, and, well, I think I agree with her. This's probably better for everyone here. I stay in the lab and she runs tests on me, and nobody has to see me running around in my Ranger suit all day. I'm sure you guys could appreciate that last part..." Ziggy gave a nervous chuckle. 

"And just how're you gonna run all these tests on him?" 

"I've been testing him to see how far the photosensitivity goes. So far, infrared light does the least amount of physical damage to him, so I've been developing a special infrared lighting system for my study quarters that he occupies." 

Dillon sighed deeply. "Fine. You hang in there, Ziggy." 

"I'm hanging on just fine, Dillon." Ziggy smiled warmly, knowing that Dr. K had succeeded. "I'll be fine. I trust the Doc won't let me down." Dillon grinned before leaving. 

Dr. K sighed a heavy sigh of relief before locking the main doors behind him. 

"You did quite well for not being a liar by nature." Ziggy joked. 

"I would reply with a ‘thank you', but I don't think thanking someone for calling me a good liar is a good thing." 

"You were acting. You're a good actor." Ziggy smiled. "Now, how long do I have to wait before I can shower? It's hot in here and I'm all nasty from all the sweating I've done in the last day." 

Dr. K thought for a moment, then sighed. "I'll turn the lights on; you'll see a door to your left once you approach the wall behind my desk chair in that room. Please try to return everything to the way you found it." 

"Thanks, Doc. You're wonderful." 

"I should probably remove the morphine drip and the heart monitor." 

"Yeah, you should do that first." Ziggy nervously laughed as she walked over and began pulling various things off of him. 

After a minute, he stood up and nearly lost his balance, grabbing the bed railing at the last minute and gasping. 

"You may need to take a few minutes to get used to a shifted center of gravity, I presume." 

"The morphine doesn't help either, Doc." 

"...I suppose it wouldn't." Dr. K sighed and thought for a moment. "Would you like me to assist you into the washroom?" 

"Please?" Dr. K frowned and walked over, pulling his hand from the guardrail and began walking forwards, dragging him along behind her. 

Ziggy instinctually wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled himself closer to her, leaning against her as his legs weakly shuffled around aimlessly in an attempt to walk while completely numb from the morphine. 

Dr. K sighed and got him into the washroom, sitting him down on the toilet. "Just sit until you can stand up on your own. The last thing I think you would want is for me to have to bring you back to the medical center." 

"Well, in that case, I'll be as careful as I can get." Ziggy nervously replied as Dr. K opened the door to the washroom and left. 

The room was small and tiled a sterile white, making him think of a hospital room inside of a walk-in closet. The shower stall took up all of the cramped space in the back, and the toilet and sink took up all of the right side of the room. The lack of a smell disturbed him slightly, as it seemed totally out of place for a washroom to be void of a smell, even if it was just a heavy perfume trying to mask the smell of something that persistently stuck around. 

The door had a built-in mirror on the inside, and Ziggy stumbled about and propped himself up in front of the mirror. 

The terror of not recognizing himself in the mirror came and went quiet suddenly as he focused on examining himself in full to get a better idea as to how he looked. 

He fumbled with getting the gown off, just to see the damage for himself rather than feeling it. As he continued struggling with the strings, he looked the bare parts of himself over; his hair had straightened out, looking only slightly longer than usual and lying flat against his head, and his eyes had turned a dark green. His body's silhouette still looked rail thin, with only a minimal amount of curves in his hips and thighs. 

He finally got the string undone and the gown slowly slid off, revealing a pair of breasts that were small but quite noticeable to him overall, and a general lack of anything below the waist. Ziggy frowned, whimpering slightly as he slowly resigned to the situation. 

He steadied himself, slowly getting used to a shifted center of gravity and struggling to work his legs despite the morphine melting his thoughts. After wobbling and nearly falling several times, he stood up straight with only a slight wobble in his right knee. His eyes widened and he grinned. 

"...I did it! Whoo!" He thrusted his arms upwards in celebration, only to throw himself off- balance. He wobbled, stumbled back and step, lost balance, and fell on his ass. He winced and dropped his arms. "Well, thank goodness my ass broke the fall..." He grabbed his right hip, then paused for a moment, letting his hand slide around slightly. He then turned his body and looked downwards. "Like Dr. K said...could be worse. Definitely could be worse." 

\-----

The washroom door opened, and Ziggy, all wrapped up in a towel, stumbled out of the bathroom. 

"I was beginning to think I should go check on you." Dr. K commented. 

"I'm freezing...Doc, where's my uniform? I need something to wear like, right now." Ziggy continued to shiver as he walked over to the bed and sat down. 

"Unfortunately, your uniform is still within the medical center's quarantine unit. I can't retrieve those for you." 

"...What'm I gonna do for clothes, then?" Dr. K sighed as Ziggy ranted. "I can't run around in a towel like this!" 

"If you'd like, I can ask Series Black to bring in some of your clothes for you." 

"Can you?" 

"If you need me to, I will." She deeply sighed. "You know that he will want to see you this time." 

"I can handle that. Just gimme the headphones again." 

"Alright..."

\-----

"Normally I would have ignored his request for a change of clothes, but since his uniform is in quarantine, I thought it best to honor his request for a new set of clothes." 

"If he needs anything else, let me know." Dillon replied. 

"I highly doubt I will need you again." He gave a look as he stood there, waiting to be let in. After several moments, Dr. K gave him a look. "You can just leave his clothes on the desk; I can bring them in." 

"No, I'd like to go in there and give them to him myself." 

Dr. K turned pale; Dillon was hell-bent on going into the room with Ziggy. 

"It's okay if you leave them there with her, Dillon. She'll bring them in to me." 

"Can't I do it?" Dillon gave the screen, then Dr. K, an irritated glare. "Why're you two trying to keep me away?" 

"No reason whatsoever!" Ziggy squeaked. 

"What's wrong, Ziggy? What's going on? You two're lying about something here; what's really wrong with him?" 

"Nothing! Nothing at all..." Ziggy replied, his voice shakier than the San Andreas Fault. 

"You're making him nervous. He doesn't wish to be disturbed by his fellow team mates because he thinks you'll judge him." 

"You know I wouldn't do that to you, Ziggy. C'mon. At least let me in." 

Ziggy took several deep breaths, then crawled under the sheets. "Fine. But please just put the clothes on the bed and leave." 

Dillon frowned and walked in, feeling snubbed. He stuck his free hand in front of him, feeling around until his hand was on the edge of the bed. He deeply sighed. "Hang in there, Ziggy." 

"I am, Dillon. I am." Ziggy calmly replied. Dillon nodded silently and walked out. 

As Dr. K locked the doors again, Ziggy sighed. "Now I feel really miserable, lying to him like this." 

"You'll get over it." 

"I hope." Ziggy replied, waiting for the lights to come on. 

"...Can I have a bit of privacy?" Ziggy asked, taking the headphones off and looking at the camera. 

"Of course." She turned the lights on and turned the screen off. 

From the other side of the wall, she could hear faint grunts of struggling. After a minute or so, the sound of Ziggy hitting the floor rattled through the floor tiles. She sighed and walked in to check on him. 

He had managed to get his shirt on as well as he could get it to fit, as well as the socks and boxers, but his hands were tightly gripping the tops of his pants, which appeared to be lodged at his kneecaps. He winced and sighed. "They're not gonna fit at all." 

"I see that." 

"What'm I gonna do for pants? These're the loosest pair of jeans I own." 

Dr. K went over the options in her mind; while he still had on undergarments, and he wasn't going to be wandering around places, the sight of his scrawny and pale legs bothered her eyes more than usual. 

Dr. K sighed deeply and walked into the washroom. "Hey! Aren't you going to help?" 

"I am." She opened a hidden panel in the washroom wall, revealing a small closet filled with uniforms of all kinds belonging to her. She dug out a long wool uniform skirt, typically worn with her winter uniforms, and unfolded it. She walked out with it and held it up to Ziggy's hips. The length was a touch on the short side, but the waist was wide enough and then some, and required a belt. "Here. Can you still use your belt?" 

"I'll try..." Ziggy yanked his jeans off his legs and sat on the bed, nervously sliding the skirt up to around his hips. He stood up, letting the skirt hang low, the elastic band of his boxers completely poking out through the top. Ziggy pulled his shirt down to hide the fact, then looped his belt around. Leaving the belt on the last notch, he managed to keep the skirt afloat around the top of his hips. 

"Perfect! Thanks." 

"Now sit down and relax...and don't disrupt me as I continue trying to crack the nanovirus." 

"...Alright." Ziggy nodded. "I'll just, uh, lie down right here, and...relax! Yeah, I'll relax." 

"Just keep quiet." 

"Sure." 

"I may have agreed to let you stay in here with me, but I will not babysit you." She turned her back to him and walked back to her desk. 

"...Right." Ziggy replied softly, feeling minorly dejected as he curled up under the bed sheets.


	3. Science and Progress

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flynn gives Dr. K his honest opinion about the nanovirus and Dr. K's poor bedside manner, Summer gives her honest opinion on the situation at hand, Dillon gives his honest opinion about blatant lies, Dr. K gives her honest opinion about the odds of re-engineering the nanovirus, and Ziggy gives his honest opinion on Dr. K's cuteness levels when she's angry, and how sometimes she overlooks the obvious.

A slight rapping of the door made Dr. K look up. "Dr. K! I think the door is stuck!" 

"No, I've locked it because I do not wish to be disturbed. Now go away." 

"I'd like to take a look at the nanobots for a wee moment." 

"I can't allow anyone to come in here and begin tinkering with the nanovirus payload units." 

"There's more than one, yes?" 

"I can't afford to have any of them to be torn apart, if I'm to use them later to restore Operator Series Green to his former self." 

"Former self? What happened?" 

Dr. K looked confused. "Series Black has not talked to anyone else in the group about what I have told him?" 

"No." 

Dr. K sighed. "Fine, come in." She unlocked the door and looked towards the blast door. 

"What's wrong with Ziggy, other than the crippling pain?" Flynn queried as he walked in. 

"His genetic structure has been altered, and it has caused him to become highly photosensitive; any exposure to any visible light causes damage to his skin. That is why I've isolated him behind the blast wall." 

"Sounds terrible." 

"It's excruciating, and slowly taking a toll on his sanity, from the sounds of it." 

"The sounds of it? I hear nothing." 

"I had to turn the monitor off because he was beginning to talk to himself in a highly verbose manner. Holding a solitary discourse." 

"Maybe he wanted to talk to you." 

"I doubt it." 

"But you're the only person in here with him, Doctor! He must be scared and lonely cooped up in a box with no light." Flynn gave a soft smile. "Let me talk to the boy." 

Dr. K sighed and turned the screen on. "Series Green, Series Blue wishes to speak with you." 

Ziggy shot up and grabbed the headphones, clearing his throat as soon as he got them on. 

"Hi." He meekly spoke. 

"Hey there, Ziggy! How're ya doing?" 

"I've been better." 

"I'd hope so!" Flynn laughed. "Ya holding up fine?" 

"It's really quiet." 

"As I'd expect a big lightless box to be, I suppose." Flynn nodded. "You don't sound like you're hurting much." 

"It only hurts when the lights turn on, thankfully." Ziggy laughed nervously. "Other than that, I'm getting a good night's sleep." 

"I suppose that's a good sign, at least." Flynn nodded. "So, the good doctor says you're holding up well, you say you're doing fine, so I guess that I can tell the others that you're alive and well." 

"Of course you can! Why, did Dillon say I was doing badly?" 

"He hasn't said much of anything to anyone. I think he feels bad for letting his guard down and letting you get hit by the Needlebot." 

"He shouldn't; it was my fault that I stupidly ran at that Needlebot, and, as usual, my plan failed." Ziggy laughed in self-deprecation. 

“Well, ya saved Dillon's life; ya didn't fail at all, Ziggy. He just got the best of ya. That's all." 

"...Thanks for trying to cheer me up." 

"Not a problem. You just hang in there, got it?" 

"Got it." Dr. K cut the feed as soon as Flynn stood up. 

Flynn looked over at the nanobot's schematics and hummed a little. 

"What?" Dr. K commented. 

"They have little grippy legs, Doctor." He pointed them out on the screen; the nanobots seemed to have a strange tripod design to them. "I would bet that they were programmed to stick around, instead of delivering this payload and leaving. Granted, I'm an engineer, not a biologist, but it's just a hunch." 

"Well, I...suppose that it would be worth a look." Dr. K replied, feeling stupid for not thinking that the strange legs were fashioned for gripping things. "Do...you see something else?" 

"There's a chamber in there for holding something, obviously the payload, and that's connected to the micro-needle at the very bottom. The first wave of pain he suffered probably came from all those nanobots grabbing and poking him all over..." 

"And considering that it injected him in the aorta...it probably rapidly spread because of that fact. If he had been injected elsewhere, the genetic reprogramming probably would've taken longer..." Dr. K bit her bottom lip. "I have to find out the full extent of the payload, figure out exactly how they work. I've tried, but they have a massive randomizing security code which changes every time I crack it and is back up in roughly ten minutes." 

"Have you tried just breaking the security system entirely? Maybe some sort of virus that destroys firewalls would work...?" 

"...I was thinking of that, but I worried that I would damage the entire nanobot, given how security-oriented it is." 

"It's worth a shot to wreck one nanobot if it helps ya." 

"...I suppose you're right. But I'll only do it once, though. I'm only going to use one." 

"That's the spirit, Doctor!" He slapped her on the back, and she flinched, looking over with a glare. "...Sorry." 

"Please do not ever do that again, Ranger Blue." 

"Aye. You have my word." 

"Please leave." 

"As you wish." He stood up and walked out. She promptly locked the door behind him. 

Dr. K turned on the screen and the lights in Ziggy's room. "Ranger Blue's been studying." 

"Can't blame him for trying." Ziggy smiled softly. 

"He's getting...too much." 

"You afraid that he's gonna know more than you soon, huh?" 

"Of course not. He'll never be smarter than me; maybe he'll be better at robotics, but he doesn't have a chance elsewhere." She sighed. "Robotics was always my weak point." 

"You're jealous." Ziggy teased. 

"I'm not jealous! Just annoyed. He just parades in even when he knows very little about the situation." 

"So you're jealous that he can just run in here and know everything." 

"I'm not jealous!" She shouted. 

"No, you're just turning red for no reason." Ziggy grinned. "You're cute when you're angry." 

"That's highly inappropriate." Dr. K looked away. 

"And now you're turning redder." Ziggy teased again. She cut the feed and went back to her work. 

\-----

"...so, Ziggy can't come out of the blast wall chamber without burning up under the light." Flynn explained to Summer and Scott. 

"That's horrible!" Summer exclaimed. 

"So he can't morph now?" Scott asked. 

"...She didn't mention that." 

"Well, our morphers are tied to us genetically, right? So if Ziggy's genetics are altered, wouldn't the morpher reject him?" 

The trio sat and pondered for a moment, and Summer's eyes widened. "Maybe that was the plan all along!" She exclaimed. 

"Venjix's got us in a corner now, doesn't he?" Flynn queried. 

"Not only are we losing the Tail Spinner, but the Croc Carrier." Scott stated. 

"And Ziggy. We've lost Ziggy." Summer interjected. 

"Yes, and our Green Ranger." 

"We lost Ziggy? How?" Dillon walked into the conversation with his arms crossed and a look of curiosity filling his face. 

"We don't think he can morph anymore because of the damage to his body." Flynn replied. 

"Is it that bad?" Dillon replied, sounding concerned. "Did Dr. K confirm that?" 

"She didn't, but I don't think she's tested this theory out." Summer replied. "At least, that's how it sounds from Flynn's perspective. Did she say anything to you?" 

"No. She's cloistering him a lot. I think she's not saying something, really. Dr. K's not one to be straightforward about anything..." 

"She's the scientist here, Dillon. She's the one making sure Ziggy's okay, and if she's pulling him away from us, she must have a reason." Scott stated, his voice sounding very strict and stiff. 

"He's our teammate, and we want to know what's wrong with him. She's hiding him from us and giving us this highly unlikely story about how Ziggy suddenly can't come out and face us. I may not be the brightest member of this team, but even I can tell when somebody's lying to me." 

"Then what do you think is wrong with him?" Scott interrogated. 

"I don't know, but her comments are awfully convenient. I think she's telling us a half- truth, if anything...but I think his problems are much worse than just an allergy to light. Something bad's happened to him, and she won't admit that she doesn't know how to fix him because it would hurt her fragile ego." 

"...Well, he sounded fine to me." Flynn stated confidently. 

"You're just mad that Dr. K isn't giving you what you want." Scott commented. 

"Scott, c'mon. I think he's got a point." Summer replied. 

"There're times when you can't get her to shut up about all her tech stuff. Now all of a sudden, she's mum about it? It doesn't sound right." 

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I trust Dr. K, and I trust that she knows exactly how to fix Ziggy. But for now, we fight and maintain order without him." 

"Whatever." Dillon huffed. 

\-----

"RPM, get in gear!" Ziggy went through the motions with his morpher strapped to his left wrist. To his and Dr. K's dismay, nothing happened. After a few moments of stunned confusion, Ziggy took a neutral pose as his mind raced. "Maybe...maybe it doesn't recognize my voice! You told us it has a voice recognition security thingy...maybe my voice's too different from normal..." 

"Might as well try." Dr. K replied, feeling her heart sink into her feet as Ziggy put the headphone device on. 

"RPM, get in gear!" Again, the same result, not even so much as a response that it recognized Ziggy's voice. Ziggy took long, drawn-out breaths of terror before trying again to the same result. He tried once more, shouting to make sure the device heard him, but again, nothing. 

"Please, stop it." Dr. K had turned a much whiter shade of pale than she normally was. "It's not going to respond to you if you yell louder. You'll only draw attention from outside." 

"...Right." Ziggy replied, sounding deflated and forlorn. 

The alarm sounded, and Dr. K looked away. "We'll deal with this when the fight's over." She got up and walked out, closing the blast wall behind her. 

"Wait! I wanna watch the fight with you!" 

"Watch on the screen in there," She replied. "you want to be isolated, then you will stick to the isolation." 

"But I meant after they left!" 

"No." She pulled her head away from the blast door entrance as it closed completely, and she turned off the camera link before she unlocked the Lab door. The quartet of remaining Rangers rushed in as she frantically began using the city's sensors to pinpoint the attack's point of origin. 

"The Needlebot's gotten into the delta quadrant, so you'd better hurry there and make sure none of the guards are infected with the nanovirus. I can't afford to deal with an outbreak of this." 

"Right. Let's move out." Scott ordered. 

\-----

Tenaya backhanded a guard and stamped down on his blaster rifle, ensuring that it would never fire another shot again. She pouted as her sensors lacked any detection of the Rangers. "They should've been here by now." 

As if her words had summoned them, the quartet raced out to attack. "Ah, Rangers, and they're a person short. Venjix's plan has worked perfectly!" 

"As I calculated, the Green Ranger is unable to use his transformation device due to a lack of genetic symbiance with his current genetic properties. Infect the rest of them, then destroy the city." 

"Piece of cake." Tenaya grinned. "You heard Venjix, Needlebot! Pump them full of those nanobots!" 

\-----

"...Dr. K?" Ziggy called out. "...Dr. K, I...I think something's wrong. Could you please come here?" 

"I'm busy. Just sit and watch the fight." Dr. K replied, her eye twitching ever so slightly as she focused back on the fight. "Ranger Blue, practice more evasive maneuvers; they appear to attempting to flank you." 

"Right on it, Doctor!" Flynn replied. 

"...I can't watch it." 

"What do you mean? The screen was properly synched up to mine. What's wrong?" 

"...I hit a button while getting into the fight and..." 

Dr. K sighed, ignoring the rest of his explanation as she stood up. "Rangers, Ranger Green is requesting my assistance. Do you think you can fight without me for the duration of my projected absence?" 

"We got it, Doc. You take care of Ziggy." Scott replied. 

Dr. K marched into the room and examined the console as Ziggy rambled on in terror. She ignored his rudimentary groveling and began figuring out what he did. After only a few seconds, she hit a few keys and the screen and it went back to normal, showing the fight scene going as planned. 

"How did you fix that?" Ziggy asked softly. 

"Don't touch anything. If you have the need to flail around during the fight, avoid being near the console from now on." She scolded before marching out. 

\-----

Dillon walked into the lab just as Ziggy scrambled for the headphones and curled up in bed. 

"What is it, Operator Series Black?" Dr. K greeted calmly, almost robotically. 

"How's Ziggy? What happened earlier?" 

"The feed of the fight I was transmitting into the room for Series Green to observe cut out, and I repaired it." 

"So he's alright?" 

"Series Green is resting." 

"Good, good. I'll let him sleep." Dillon gave a look, then began to walk out. "I wanna know when he wakes up." 

"I will make sure to contact you when Series Green awakens." Dr. K replied, dismissing the notion as it was coming out of her mouth. The Black Ranger was becoming a nuisance; even if they were close partners, Series Green was not well and needed time alone. Why he couldn't grasp this concept was beyond her usually sharp wit. 

Ziggy popped his head out of the doorway and sighed as she locked the doors. "Every time he leaves, the guiltier I feel." He muttered. 

"Guilt shouldn't have anything to do with it. It's better for my studying that physical contact between you and the other Rangers is kept to a minimum. In fact, all physical contact from anyone is optimum, as I have absolutely no clue if such simple skin-to-skin contact will pass any of the nanobots from one person to the other." 

Ziggy frowned, then thought for a moment. He then walked over to Dr. K and grabbed her hand. She flinched and panicked, trying to pull away. 

"What are you doing? Let go!" She screamed. 

"Ugh, your hands are cold..." Ziggy gave a mock look of disapproval as Dr. K turned pale. With his other hand, he grabbed her wrist, securing his grip on her. 

"Stop it! Don't you have any regard for what you could be doing?" Dr. K scolded him in a terrified tone. 

"You would have felt something by now if the nanobots traveled through skin-to-skin contact." Ziggy replied. "After about ten seconds, I felt like I had a bad case of the flu. You're not even breaking a sweat." 

Dr. K was shocked to see such a thought fill his mind, and she calmed down rapidly because of it. His logic...was sensible? Surely it was a fluke. 

After nearly half a minute after she had calmed down, she noticed that he still had her hand securely gripped. "You've made your point. You can let go of my hand now." 

"I'm trying to warm your hand up; it's ice cold." 

"I don't need my hand warmed." She flatly replied, giving him a look. 

"Well, it's cold in here, and I'm not gonna let your fingers fall off because you're stubborn. These fingers may be the only thing that'll fix me." 

"My hands are always cold; they've never been in danger of falling off before in here, mostly because the human body does not do such a thing while alive and healthy without the application of liquid nitrogen." 

"Gimme your other hand." Ziggy let go of her wrist and gestured for her other hand. Dr. K glared at him but he quickly grabbed her hand and clenched it softly, smiling softly. "It's gonna feel nice to have nice warm hands." 

"I fail to see the point of this." 

"You never think to take a minute for yourself to make sure you're comfy and healthy." 

"My health, and especially my comfort, are not essential to the protection of Corinth." 

"Doesn't mean you can't keep your hands warm." Ziggy softly smiled. 

Dr. K didn't know quite how to respond; she knew that if she continued the argument, Series Green would only succeed in warming her hands up while they fought anyways, so she merely sighed and let him finish.


	4. First Contact

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things heat up in the Garage and the local mall as parties collide.

_Ziggy opened his eyes and woke up in a sitting position in a dark room. A feeling of familiarity shot through him as he realized that he was his old self again. Had Dr. K managed to fix him up in his sleep?_

_He stood up and looked around. "Hello?" No answer. He turned around and saw a lone mirror casting his reflection using some unseen light source._

_He approached the mirror cautiously; he noticed that he was in his Ranger uniform, and his sense of danger was looming over him like a ghost of sorts._

_As he reached the mirror, his reflection gave a sadistic grin, and suddenly it wavered and warped until it showed his feminine self wearing his uniform. Ziggy jumped, but the reflection reached out from the mirror and seized his wrist._

_"You're not leaving us, Green Ranger..." His reflection's eyes glowed a sick red and giant nanobots rolled out from under her sleeve like a swarm of spiders. Ziggy tried to pull away, but her grip was tight and he couldn't slide his way out of it. All he could do was scream..._

Ziggy shot up as he shrieked in terror, waking Dr. K up from her momentary slumber. She jumped from her chair and ran into the room, taser in hand. 

Ziggy curled up in a ball on the bed and began to cry. Dr. K sighed a breath of relief and set the taser down on the secondary desk. 

"...Are you in pain, Series Green," She asked in a concerned tone. "or did you experience a nightmare?" 

"Nightmare..." Ziggy choked out. 

"Do you wish to tell me exactly what happened in this nightmare?" Ziggy ignored her as he continued crying. She simply nodded and noted that he was probably too distressed to speak at the moment. "Right. If you wish to talk, I will be in the next room." She nodded, then walked out. 

\-----

Ziggy slowly slid out of bed and walked out into the lab, barefoot and worn out from crying. He watched quietly as Dr. K sat staring at the screen, looking unusually depressed as she limply pounded away at the keys. She didn't acknowledge his presence, and he took it to mean that she didn't see him or hear him. 

She sighed deeply and sat up, looking at the screen more intently. Her bottom lip quivered and her head lingered over to the pair of ribbons that sat tied to her desk. She looked back at the screen, blinking rapidly as she shook her head in an attempt to cast something away. 

Ziggy slowly and silently walked closer, keeping out of her peripheral vision, still watching her. She sighed deeply, the hint of a suppressed crying session lingering in her vocalizations.   
Was she upset about him? About the nanobots? The ribbons, maybe? He couldn't figure it out.   
"One more time..." She muttered, speeding up her typing. "Not this time...not this time..." She seemed to be taunting the screen, which displayed a diagram of a nanobot enlarged thousands of times its normal size, and a black BIOS box where all the information Dr. K was typing showed up. The computer itself responded to her every command. 

After a few minutes, the screen seemed to flicker, giving a warning. Dr. K gave an elated sigh and she rapidly picked up her typing. "Not this time, not this time..." She muttered. After a minute, segments of the nanobot diagram started turning red. Dr. K laughed softly and maniacally, seeming to enjoy herself. After another two minutes or so, the whole nanobot turned red, and a chirping sound was emitted from the speakers. 

"Yes!" She shouted, throwing her arms up in the air. Ziggy jumped in shock, which in turn surprised Dr. K. She turned around and shouted, making Ziggy jump and shriek. 

"How long have you been there?" Dr. K asked. She instinctively wiped her eyes to hide her near-crying fit. 

"Not very long. I walked out to maybe get something to eat...I'm very hungry." 

"...You want to go out there now?" Dr. K asked. 

"Well, I wanna know what you did on the computer first. Did you find out how to fix me?" 

Dr. K turned around in her chair. "About halfway there." Ziggy walked up behind her and looked at the screen; it might as well have been a foreign language, because even now he failed to understand anything, except that the nanobot was broken somehow. "The firewall has been severely hindering my progress, because it would shut me out before I could properly scan through its coding." She looked over at Ziggy with a sadistic grin on her face. "I broke the firewall." 

"That's good, right?" 

"Very good. I can now properly scan the nanobot's coding to figure out how to retrofit the payload coding to reverse the process it's already performed." 

"...So you're gonna fix me?" 

"Hopefully sooner, rather than later." Dr. K nodded. "So, you're over your disillusion?" 

"No, actually. I was going to ask if I could borrow one of those Red Riding Hood robes you have. Chances are that Dillon's out there eating something." 

She blinked for a moment, trying to figure out what he said. As soon as she realized what he meant by ‘Red Riding Hood robe’, her eyes widened. "Oh. Of course." 

"Great. Thank you." 

"...You're welcome." She got up, blinking slightly in a semi-shock as she walked towards her bathroom closet. She walked out with one of her walking cloaks and a pair of fuzzy blue slippers that looked suspiciously like dogs of some sort. 

"What's up with the slippers?" Ziggy asked, giving a puzzled look. 

"They're to hide the fact that your feet are at least two shoe sizes bigger than mine, and therefore your disguise would be foiled." 

"Disguise? ...You think I'm trying to pretend to be you?" 

"...Was I being too sagacious to think that you would consider such a thing?" 

"A little, maybe." Ziggy replied. 

"Well, the floor tiles in the garage are typically colder out there than they are in here, so it might be beneficial to wear something on your feet that will both protect and insulate the heat." 

"You're thinking of me?" 

"I don't have to, but I wish to keep you healthy until I can repair the damage done by this virus. Do keep this in mind while you are food hunting." 

"I'll make sure to find something with mold on it." Ziggy grinned. 

"Please do not actively endanger your health to spite me. You'll only be preventing me from reversing the damage done to you by the nanobots." 

"Fine." Ziggy stuck his tongue out at her and took both the hood and the slippers, putting them on while Dr. K gave him a look of annoyance. 

"There was no need for your adolescent response." She scolded. Ziggy, to her surprise, didn't respond, but merely adjusted the hood and walked out. 

Ziggy pulled the slippers on quickly while the doors opened and he quickly noticed that Scott, Summer, and Flynn were occupying the kitchen area. He gulped and walked forwards nervously, keeping his head down and avoiding eye contact. 

Scott looked over and smiled. "Good morning, Doc! How's Ziggy doing?" 

Ziggy gave a thumb's up and continued his beeline to the fridge. 

"Ah, good to hear. Do ya think he'd like a smoothie for breakfast?" 

Ziggy thought it over for a moment, then shrugged and reached out for the glass. 

"Why so silent this morning?" Summer asked as Flynn handed Ziggy a glass full of a fruity pink drink topped off with a strawberry. "Is Ziggy okay?" Ziggy nodded yes. 

"It's early in the morning, and she's probably been up all night with the nanobot cracking, and she's not really in the mood to talk." Ziggy pointed at Flynn, as if to say that he was right. "See?" 

"You just coming out for a snack then?" Scott queried. Ziggy nodded yes, then went back towards the fridge. He opened the door, then completely realized that he was at least attempting to go with the facade that he was Dr. K. He panicked and grabbed a yogurt before closing the fridge and going into the cupboards and digging out an oatmeal bar. 

"Stocking up for the winter, eh Doc?" Scott joked. Ziggy didn't dignify the crack with a response, but merely gave a quick goodbye wave. 

"Good luck, Doctor!" Flynn wished. Ziggy gave him a quick thumb's up as he speedwalked into the lab. 

Dr. K looked up, then locked the lab door behind him. "You brought quite a lot." 

"Well, I brought you something, too..." He dropped the oatmeal bar on her desk and smiled. She opened the top left drawer at her desk to reveal a whole drawer of them. "...Well, it wouldn't hurt to stock up?" He took a sip of the smoothie and nervously smiled as she closed the drawer and grabbed the oatmeal bar on the desk. 

Ziggy grabbed an empty rolling shelf and sat across from her, managing to assemble the tiny plastic spoon on the top of the yogurt while sipping from his smoothie. "You should try this smoothie. Flynn makes them really good." 

"Too many carbohydrates, mostly from simple sugars. It's unnecessary for me to introduce such a thing into my diet; two oatmeal bars a day provides me with enough energy to stay alert for a full 24 hours. Any other source of nutrition or energy, aside from water for hydration, is extraneous." 

"...Right." Ziggy gave her a strange look while taking a sip from the smoothie. 

\-----

Dillon walked downstairs, having overslept for the first time in a while. He didn't have a clue why; he was always up before sunrise. He saw the trio downstairs; still no Ziggy. He gave a look as he walked towards the fridge. 

"Ya just missed Doctor K, Dillon. She says Ziggy's doing great." Flynn commented. "Want a smoothie?" 

"Not today." Dillon replied, holding up a hand to halt him. He gave an intensely interested look towards Flynn, though. "So we're finally gonna be able to visit him soon?" 

"Well, she didn't say that." Flynn replied. 

"She didn't say much of anything, really." Summer added. "She was pretty silent." 

Flynn nodded and Dillon crossed his arms. "I still don't like any of this." He grabbed a soda from the fridge. "I'm out." Dillon fixed his coat and walked over to his car, soda in hand. 

"Hey! Can I go with ya?" Flynn asked. 

"Whatever." Dillon replied, popping the top on his soda and taking a swig. Flynn got up and grabbed his coat as Dillon walked towards his car. "You've got shotgun." 

"Fine by me." Flynn replied. 

\-----

"Any luck finding those things you were looking for?" Ziggy asked. 

"Not yet." 

"Oh." Ziggy's eyes wandered around the desk, hitting the bright gold ribbon, then the silver ribbon, both tied to the computer desk that she had looked at earlier. "...Nice ribbons there." Dr. K looked up at him. "Nice, uh...touch! They really bring the desk together." 

"Do not touch them." Dr. K warned in a deathly tone. Ziggy audibly gulped. 

"You know what?" He jumped down from the cart. "I'm going to leave you alone for a while." He finished off the yogurt and sipped the rest of the smoothie down before making his way towards the door. 

"Where are you going?" 

"I'm not sure. But I'm going to go outside and give you your space." 

"This is really something you want to do?" 

"Yeah." 

"Well, since it was your choice to leave, and you have proven that you're not at all contagious, I have no reason to keep you in here." 

"I'd like to still borrow your Red Riding Hood coat thing, though." 

"It is a cloak. A walking cloak." 

"Okay, okay, walking cloak. I'm going up to my room as soon as the lounge is empty, get a few things, then go. I'll be back later on." 

"You're going to come back in here?" 

"Yeah! I'm not gonna stay outside like this forever, ya know. Just...need some fresh air." 

"...Right." 

Ziggy pulled up the hood and quickly peeked out; Dillon and Flynn were nowhere in sight, Summer was revving up to leave for somewhere, and Scott was preoccupied with his car. Perfect. 

"Time me, Doc." He called out, kicking off the slippers and digging out his socks. 

"For what?" 

"I wanna see how fast I go from here to my room." 

"I am not timing you for something that useless." 

"Fine! I'll time myself in my head." Ziggy ran out of the lab, silently making his way up to his room to grab money, shoes, and his sidebag, then leave while the door was nearly closed behind Summer, all without drawing Scott's attention. 

\-----

_"Tenaya 7, state your logic behind your request."_

"You see, Venjix, without the Green Ranger, they're a man short. I want to cause a little destruction and wear them out a little while you hatch your next scheme. It'll only take a couple dozen Grinders; you can just build yourself more, right?" 

_"My Grinders are not toys, Tenaya 7."_

"I know that. I'm not going to play with them, I'm going to use them to play with the Rangers. I want to wear them out, run their resources down a little..." Tenaya paused for half a second, deciding to try and sweeten the pot a little. "and maybe try to force that gullible team player of a Green Ranger to show up. He's a sucker for helping his teammates." She grinned. "I might even be able to kill him and steal his morpher, since he can't use it anyways." 

_"If you can retrieve the Series Green morpher and eliminate the Green Ranger himself, Tenaya 7, then this will be a great endeavor."_

"I promise you that I will cause havoc in the city until I find him and get rid of him." 

_"Consider this your mission then: take the Grinders into the city and leave a wake of destruction. Draw out the Green Ranger and destroy him, but you must leave his Ranger equipment intact."_

"Sounds like fun to me." Tenaya 7 grinned. 

\-----

"So, why'd you tag along, might I ask?" Dillon asked Flynn as he stopped at the red light. It wasn't like Dillon to stop at red lights when it was obvious that he could've made them by speeding, so Flynn knew he was serious about something. 

"Ah, I just needed to leave the garage, is all. I'm feeling a little cooped up in there." 

"...You worried about Ziggy, too?" 

"Well, I've been thinking about the points you made, and well...I think you're right." 

"You just didn't want Scott to hear it." 

"You know how touchy he gets when it comes to people agreeing with ya." 

Dillon rolled his eyes. 

"So, what do you think is wrong with Ziggy?" 

"Well, I took a look at the schematics, but I think I'm no better at guessing just what they did to him than she is." 

"Why is Ziggy avoiding us?" Dillon revved the engine before driving down the street as the light turned green. 

"Maybe Dr. K's telling the truth, and he's just really sensitive about whatever the nanobots have done to him. Maybe he's become disfigured, or he has creepy red glowing eyes or metallic skin, and he's horrified!" 

"I still don't get why he's pushing me away then. Why is he clinging to Dr. K? I just don't get it." 

"Aye, doncha see? The boy's got a touch of puppy love for her." Dillon suddenly stopped the car, almost causing an accident. He looked over at Flynn with a piercing glare. "Don't tell me ya haven't noticed him following her around like a little lost dog, pestering her all the time to get a rise out of her like a schoolboy...?" 

"No, I haven't. Mostly because he's always pestering someone in the room by just being himself." Dillon looked back at the road. "I think you're delusional." 

"Perhaps. But as his best friend, I would think you'd have noticed that sort of behavior." 

"Nope. But I find it a little disturbing that you think Ziggy has feelings for Dr. K. Do you sit there while making those smoothies of yours just imagining Ziggy trying to hit on her or something?" 

Flynn gave him a weirded out look. "Odin's beard, are ya daft? I've got better things to fantasize about." 

"Thanks for sharing." Dillon replied as they pulled into the mall parking lot. 

"Ah, the mall. I have to get some supplies from the hardware shop, so we split up and meet back at the food court?" 

"Sounds like a plan. I think I need a few minutes away from ya anyways." 

"Aye. I'm feeling a little like that, too." 

"Good. Then it's settles. Food court. An hour?" Dillon did a crafty drifting move to slide into a parking spot before another car. 

"One hour sounds great." 

"Good. Let's go." 

\-----

Ziggy briskly made his way through the mall patrons, ducking into the department store and looking around. He walked nervously into the women's section and began to browse. 

After nearly an hour, he ducked into the changing room and got into the outfit he'd picked out; a tie-dyed black-over-green teeshirt, a pair of finally-fitting capri pants, a black coat, and a pair of pull-on shoes. He put his spare clothes in his bag, including the walking cloak, and walked up to a register. The cashier just gave him a dirty look. 

"I have the money, I just want to wear this out. It’s perfect, I need them. Can you just scan these and remove the tags and security thingies with the ink?”

\-----

Ziggy's stomach growled as he walked by the food court. He laid his hand against his stomach and looked down. "Are you serious...?" He sighed. "Fine..." 

He walked into the food court and spotted Flynn walking in from the other entrance carrying a bag from a hardware store. He panicked and ducked behind a pillar, realizing only moments after that Flynn probably wouldn't recognize him anyways. 

"Right, right...act cool, act natural, like you don't even know him..." 

A cold hand sat on his shoulder, making him jump. He looked back, and Tenaya's sinister smile and icy black visor met his gaze. "Hi." She spoke. "Ranger Series Green, I presume?" Ziggy's eyes widened. "I take that as a yes." 

Ziggy leaned in. "How did you know?" 

"Clothing's not changed a bit. And you're cowering behind a pillar; that's sort've your thing." 

"Ah. Right. Yeah...haven't changed much, huh?" 

"Nope. I pretty much figured out it was you about twenty minutes ago." 

"...You've been following me?" 

"Clever one, aren't you? Yes, I have been following you." 

"What for?" 

"Because I'm going to take your morpher and kill you." She grimaced and clamped her hand down on Ziggy's shoulder. 

Ziggy screamed and tried to pull away. "Just give me your morpher, and I will kill you really quickly. If you struggle, your death will be much more painful." 

From across the food court, Dillon stood up, startling Flynn. "What's wrong?" 

"Over there. Tenaya's over there." 

"Tenaya?" Flynn stood up and looked. 

"Oh look, your friends are here too. I brought some of my own friends to play with them." Tenaya grinned and snapped her fingers, activating the signal to the numerous incognito Grinders roaming the food court. They tossed off their disguises and all turned to face Dillon and Flynn. 

"She really planned this one out, didn't she?" Dillon griped. 

"Aye, she did." 

"Okay, here's the plan. You keep the Grinders busy, I'll save the hostage from Tenaya." 

"Well, that's a better plan than I had." 

"What was your plan?" 

"I didn't have one." 

"Ah." Both transformed into their Ranger suits and began fighting the Grinders. 

"Listen, we really don't have to fight about this, Tenaya. You could just let me go! I don't have it with me, so I don't see the point in shaking me down for something I don't have!" Ziggy pleaded as Tenaya dragged him away. 

"You know, you're even more pathetic as a female human." Tenaya commented as she continued walking. "Fine, if you don't have it with you, then we'll just go to your base and tear it apart until we find it. Then I'll kill you for wasting my time with your incompetence." 

Dillon punched his way through the wall of Grinders and ducked around the fleeing patrons as he ran as fast as he could to get to Tenaya. Flynn called back to the base. 

"Dr. K! Could ya send Scott and Summer to the mall for backup? There's dozens of Grinders here!" 

"Negative. They're currently quelling a disturbance in the Beta sector of the city, I will, however, send them to the mall to assist you and Series Black when they are finished." She zoomed in to a more detailed layout of the mall, noticing that Dillon was walking away from Flynn. "Where is Series Black going?" 

"Tenaya has a female hostage, and Dillon's running out to get her." 

Dr. K felt a pang of worry strike her, a pang that made her worry even more once she realize that it had struck her. "...Female hostage? Why would she have a hostage?" 

"Not sure." 

"Can you give me a visual?" 

"Sure!" Flynn activated the closed circuit video camera in his morpher, and a shaky feed of Tenaya dragging Ziggy away filled a small box that popped up on her screen. Her eyes widened. "I see now. Assist Series Black as soon as you get all of the patrons to safety." 

"Right on it!" Flynn replied, closing the feed. Dr. K sighed and wondered how it was that Series Green always managed to get himself in trouble. 

Dillon got to the end of the wall and ran towards Tenaya and Ziggy. 

"Oh look, here he comes..." Tenaya taunted. 

"Let go of me!" Ziggy shouted, grabbing the hand. It was then that he realized that it was her right hand on his shoulder. 

He grinned and grabbed both above and below her wrist and twisted them in opposite directions. "What are you doing?" She shouted, staring at him. He heard a click and pulled forwards, tearing her right hand away with him, spinning around like a top. Tenaya stared in shock, and quickly found Ziggy doing the same. 

"It worked! Wow...I was really hoping it would, but I didn't think it would...wow!" Ziggy stated. 

Tenaya thought for a moment, then held up her handless arm and grinned. The dislodged hand on Ziggy's shoulder came alive and began choking Ziggy. "Too bad you didn't think it all the way out. Now you're going to give me what I want, or I'm going to-" 

A bright flash cut through the air, slicing through the mobile hand and crippling its motor system. It fell lifeless to the ground and Tenaya growled and looked over at Dillon, Nitro Blaster in hand. 

"Hands off the girl, Tenaya." Dillon warned, turning the Nitro Blaster on her. Ziggy cringed away from the crippled robotic hand, and kicking it as it twitched one final time while sparking. "Didn't think you were the kind to take hostages. What're you up to?" 

Tenaya looked at Ziggy, then at Dillon, then back at Ziggy. 

"Thanks, Mister...Power...Ranger...guy!" Ziggy stammered before running off. 

Tenaya watched Ziggy run away, then looked over at Dillon, slowly realizing the truth that he knew nothing of his partner's condition. She began to laugh, slowly building from an amused chuckle to hysterical laughter. 

"What's so funny?" Dillon spat out. 

"You humans are so hilarious. You never cease to amuse me, like little toys." 

"What's your game?" Dillon demanded. 

"My...game? You are my game, Black Ranger." She grinned. "You made me lose what I've come for, Black Ranger. I have no need to be here. Farewell!" Tenaya ran off, leaving Dillon to wonder about the dispute between the mysterious girl and Tenaya. 

Flynn ran up to Dillon as he finished his end of the fight. "What happened? Did ya save the girl?" 

"She ran off." Dillon dropped out of transformation, a puzzled look filling his face. "She..." He looked in the direction Ziggy had run off in. "She was familiar." He looked back at Flynn, who had also dropped back down into his uniform. 

"Really? Then go after her!" 

"I have a feeling we'll run into her again." Dillon replied. "Let's get back to the base." 

\-----

"So this whole thing was just a ruse to distract us while Tenaya attempted to kidnap this girl?" Scott asked Dillon, confused by the story his teammates were giving. 

"Aye. Once the girl escaped, she just ran off, and the Grinders just stopped coming." Flynn confirmed. 

"I wonder what this thing Tenaya was asking her for is, or if we can even find this girl again to protect her from Tenaya. For all we know, this girl could be in trouble again." Summer mused. 

"Did Tenaya go into detail about what she wanted?" Scott queried. 

"Not that I could hear. I saw her talking to the girl, but everyone's voices were bouncing around and I wasn't paying attention at the time. But when the girl saw me, she looked nervous, even after she was able to leave. I just can't shake how familiar she was..." Dillon sighed. 

"Do you think it might be the person you're looking for?" Summer asked. 

"I don't know. But I know that I know her, whoever she is, and I think that she knows me. I'm not sure." 

"Well then, we set out to find this girl and keep Tenaya from getting her hands on whatever it is that she's trying to get from her. Let's spread out." Scott ordered. 

The quartet took to their individual vehicles and made off in the four cardinal directions. 

\-----

"Your affinity for causing problems regardless of location is uncanny, Ranger Green." Dr. K scolded. 

"She wanted my morpher, Dr. K! She knew it was me!" 

Dr. K looked up from the screen. "Well, the way you are currently dressed isn't much different from the style and fashion of your Civilian Ranger gear." 

"Alright, I get it. I have a specific style of clothing that makes me feel comfortable, and I really didn't get very far away from it." Ziggy sighed. "But this's serious! I feel like...I feel like I should be honest. I could really use the others's help." 

"Is this your final decision?" 

"Yes! Yes, I'm going to go out there right now and come clean." Ziggy declared in a determined tone. "I'm going to admit everything, and...and I'm going to apologize for being so secretive!" 

"Why are you apologizing for secrecy? You didn't want to tell any of them the truth because you were afraid of their opinions. You didn't want their input, or their interrogations as to how it all came about. It's logical." 

"But lying isn't good! Lying is bad, especially when it's to friends." 

"...I see." Dr. K looked away for a moment, appearing to process the thought. "Well, if you're going to ‘come clean’, as you call it, then you should do it before it's time for designated rest." 

"Like anyone goes to bed on time..." Ziggy verbally shrugged aside the premise. Dr. K gave him a look, and he became nervous. "Well, I do! I mean, everyone else is usually up still, but I make it to bed on time! I'm always exhausted!" 

"My studies have shown that you are usually the last one to retreat to your quarters at night, occasionally doing so before Ranger Red." 

"...Really?" 

"I have a camera array in the Garage. I know what goes on in there." 

"Really...?" Ziggy gulped. 

"But I suppose that is fine. Perhaps I should set different guidelines for sleeping arrangements if none of you can make current guidelines." 

"...Seriously?" 

"No." Dr. K replied. 

"...Oh." Ziggy gave a deflated look. "...Well, okay...um..." Ziggy pondered for a moment. "Well, I'm going out there!" Ziggy sighed and looked down. "I won't be nervous, I won't be nervous..." He walked out into the Garage, then realized after a moment that it was empty. "...Hello?"   
"They're not here. They left a few minutes ago." Dr. K called out to him. 

"...Why didn't you say something?" Ziggy shouted while turning around and sticking his head into the room. 

"I tried to talk you out of it." 

"You're not funny." Ziggy flatly replied. "...Then fine. I'm going to sit out here and eat something until they get back." 

"Again, I do recommend that you keep to the outlined diet, despite your inactivity as a Ranger." 

"I saw some moldy cheese in the fridge!" Ziggy sang loudly while walking towards the fridge. Dr. K scowled and pressed several buttons on her keyboard. 

As Ziggy opened the fridge, a pair of laser cannon turrets slowly pushed through the back of the fridge, making Ziggy panic and slam the door shut. 

"Are you crazy?" He shouted into the lab. Dr. K couldn't help but give a fleeting grin, feeling successful. "Fine. I'll just take this. Calm down and make the big blasty thing go away." Dr. K retracted the cannons and sighed softly to herself while Ziggy grabbed a cup of yogurt.


	5. The Mission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dr. K finally cracks the case, but there's a snag. Luckily, Ziggy's make-or-break nature comes into play tenfold.

The overhead speakers screeched as Dr. K activated them, making Ziggy jump off the couch from a sleeping position. "Ranger Green, come to the lab immediately." 

"Coming, coming..." Ziggy groaned as he slid off the couch and walked into the lab. 

Dr. K gave a small grin to Ziggy as he walked in. "What is it?" 

"I believe that I have solved the problem." She replied. 

Ziggy's eyes lit up. "Really?" He rushed to her side, making her uncomfortable enough to scoot away from him slightly. "What is it?" 

"Well, from the looks of it, the program was set to alter random chromosomal sets; while most of the damage done did very little to you mentally or physically, if anything at all, as most chromosomal mutations do, it just happened to alter the chromosome set affecting your gender. This whole situation you've been placed into was just a random anomaly." 

"...Is that supposed to make me feel better?" 

"Does it make you ‘feel better’, Ranger Green?" 

"No, it doesn't." Ziggy replied. "So!" He clapped his hands and grinned. "How do we fix it?" 

"That, I don't know." 

Ziggy gave a deflated look as his arms dropped back to his sides. "You...don't know?" 

"Well, I know which chromosome sets were affected, as it left a backlog of what was affected. However, I'm unsure of exactly what they looked like beforehand. The only way I'd be able to do this is if I had a sample of your original chromosome set." 

"Well, how could we do that? I don't care if it hurts a lot or not, I just want this fixed." 

"We can't." 

"...Why not?" 

"I'd need a sample of your original DNA, so I could scan it and recode the nanobots to rebuild your chromosomes correctly. That's not something I have on file, so unfortunately I have to either attempt to guess or you will have to permanently remain like this." 

Ziggy gave a look of defeat for a moment, then collapsed to the ground. Dr. K looked down at the crushed Ziggy and gave a look suggesting that she was trying to feel some sympathy. "I apologize, Ranger Green. This hurts this entire project, not just you. If it's any consolation, I can let you stay here and assist the others in some other way." 

Ziggy didn't even seem to be paying attention to her. 

"If this were any of the other Rangers, I could solve the problem easily. But you? Unfortunately there's nothing I can do." 

"Why not me?" 

"All successful candidates in Project Ranger get blood tests to assure no performance enhancing materials are present in their system. Standard military procedure to ensure that all candidates are of a stable physical and mental condition. Since you didn't go through the program, I don't have a blood sample to use." 

Ziggy was silent for only five seconds before he started to speak again. "All you'd need is a blood sample? Any old drop of blood from me when I was...well, guy-me?" 

"Yes." Ziggy grinned. "Your smile suggests something...positive." 

"A few weeks ago, I donated a pint of blood to the hospital for their annual blood drive. A few friends of mine were giving some blood, so I chipped in too. They make really good oatmeal cookies, I think you'd like them, nice and chewy with little bits of walnuts in them..." Ziggy drifted off into thought as Dr. K looked at him in awe. 

Ziggy's errant and random acts of kindness seemed to be the very thing to save him this time. 

"You donated a pint of blood to the hospital?" 

"Yeah. It kind've hurt, but the cookie was good...I wish I had swiped a second one..." 

"This is great news! I will make a request to Col. Truman in the morning, and he can write up an order for the hospital to draw a sample for in-lab testing. I only need a vial's worth for my purposes...this is a very positive development." 

"I guess it pays to be nice, huh?" 

"In this case, it might have just saved all of Corinth." 

"Not so stupid anymore, am I?" 

"I didn't say that." Dr. K turned back to face her monitors, trying to ignore his attempt to stroke his own ego. 

"But you're totally thinking it." 

"No, I am not." 

"You can't fool me. You're impressed with my great stroke of luck and charity!" 

"Not even in the slightest." 

\-----

Flynn found himself arriving back to the base around midnight, the first to come back after a long day of searching for the mystery girl from the mall. He spotted the tan domed scooter and muttered to himself about long pizza deliveries. 

He parked inside the Garage, catching Ziggy off-guard. Flynn stared in awe at the fact that the girl whom he had been looking for all day was suddenly in the Garage. 

"How'd you get in here?" Flynn asked. The girl looked incredibly panicked as she put her coat back on and stood up from the couch, turning off the blaring radio. 

Ziggy panicked, and suddenly went back and forth, not knowing what to say. "I...I was let in! By Dr. K! Because...because I'm doing a job for her!" 

"’Doing a job’, eh?" He walked closer to the nervous girl. 

Dr. K watched Ziggy and sighed. She walked out into the Garage to intervene. "Ranger Series Blue, do not be alarmed. This is an assistant of mine, here temporarily. I have told her to not disturb me while I work, and she did not wish to go outside again after the incident at the shopping facility. So I have instructed for her to stay here, in the Garage, until our arrangement is finished." 

Ziggy looked over at her, surprised that she intervened. "Yeah, what Dr. K said." 

"Is that why Tenaya was after ya, lass?" 

Dr. K stepped forwards. "Yes. She is going to be transporting an important parcel here tomorrow, and somehow Venjix found out about it." 

"What is it, Doctor?" 

"It's the cure for Ranger Green's affliction." 

"Oh! That is quite important!" Flynn grinned. "If you'd like lass, I can come with you as a bodyguard." 

Ziggy gave a mildly creeped out look. "I...I don't need a bodyguard. I don't even need a ride!" 

"Ah, that's your scooter outside, isn't it?" 

"Yeah! My ride! Best ride in Corinth!" Ziggy chuckled nervously. 

"Well, it's not very protecting in case Venjix tried to blow you and Ziggy's cure up, now is it?" 

"Ugh...not really, I guess..." 

"The best solution in this is for you to go with Ranger Blue tomorrow." 

Ziggy gave her a terrified look. "What? I, I can just take my scooter! It's fine!" 

"You have no protection, as he's pointed out. It would be best for you to ride with someone." 

Dillon barreled his way into the Garage as the door opened to let him in, and Ziggy's eyes lit up. "Can I ride with him instead?" 

"That car is a death trap on its own!" Flynn replied. "My baby here can repel laser blasts from all kinds of blasters, and-" 

Dillon quickly got out of his car and stared at Ziggy. "You! How'd you get in here?" 

"She's with Dr. K; she's gonna be getting the device to cure Ziggy tomorrow; that's why Venjix sent Tenaya after her." 

"...Right, what he said." Ziggy agreed. 

"I'll take her to the place, then." Dillon replied, sounding rather imposing. "My car's faster than that box on wheels." 

"Aye, but can yours take a laser blast?" 

"Guys!" Ziggy shouted, getting their attention. "You two just...stop fighting over me. Please, just...please. I'll go with Dillon." 

"How'd you know my name?" Dillon asked, walking towards Ziggy. 

"He called you Dillon in the mall, I just remembered it. It's a nice name, Dillon. It suits you! You look a lot like a Dillon!" Ziggy nervously laughed. "I'm just gonna shut up and sit down now." Ziggy did as he said he would, befuddling the two men. 

"Fine, you may travel with Ranger Black tomorrow. I'm sorry, Ranger Blue, but Ranger Black has brought up the issue of speed. This mission would benefit from a speed boost." Dr. K cleared her throat, then turned to face Ziggy. "You can sleep on the couch out here." 

Ziggy gave her a look of confusion, but she quickly ignored it and walked back into the lab without him. 

Dillon and Flynn sat down on the couch on either side of Ziggy and gave warm smiles. "So lass, what's your name?" Flynn asked. 

"My name's not important." Ziggy replied. 

"Names are very important." Dillon bluntly stated. 

"Well, mine's not." Ziggy replied, cloistering as they both stared at him. 

Summer and Scott arrived at the same time, making Dillon and Flynn look up. 

"Look who's here!" They both pointed out, gesturing towards Ziggy in a showcasing manner. 

\-----

Dillon yawned and lied his head on the dining counter; spending the entire night up, watching the twitchy and scared girl, trying to see if she would jog his memory...it was tiring. He would have heard Summer walking downstairs if he hadn't just fell into a deep rest. 

Summer smiled at the sight in front of her; this girl was really getting under his skin good, and now he was going to be alone with her? How hilariously ironic. She gave a humored huff and walked down to the fridge and opened it. 

She noticed that the lab door responded to her and slid open; it usually did that, but ever since Ziggy got attacked by the Needlebot, the door had remained locked and didn't respond to anyone. 

Summer slowly walked in, noticing immediately that Dr. K was not at her desk. Ziggy's morpher sat at the edge of the desk, worrying Summer slightly more. She then noticed that the blast door was open, and light was coming out from it. 

Her eyes widened and she rushed inside; Ziggy's clothes were neatly folded, shoes on top of the pile, and stacked on the edge of the secondary desk, and Dr. K looked near dead on the freshly made bed, her arms wrapped around her waist. 

"Dr. K?" Summer called out, causing the young woman to spring from her sleep in a panic. "Dr. K, where is Ziggy?" 

"Ranger Green is fine." She replied in a tired tone while getting off the bed. "I apologize if I am groggy and disoriented; Ranger Green had once suggested that lying down on a flat surface for five minutes when one's brain is jumbled helps one to think clearly, but I did not factor in the concept that lying down on a bed would trigger one's need for sleep." 

"Where is he? He's not here, but his clothes are." 

"He is in the building, safe and soundly sleeping." Dr. K replied, looking at her surveillance clips. Summer looked at the clips, but failed to see him. 

"Where is he?" 

Dr. K pointed to where he was sleeping, on the couch. "He is right there." 

"I think you're very groggy and disoriented, Dr. K...that's your assistant." 

"I know exactly who I'm pointing at. That is Ranger Green." 

Summer looked her in the eyes. "...You're joking, right?" 

"I am not one to engage in comedic pieces, Ranger Yellow. That is Ranger Green." 

Summer thought about it for a moment; looking at the girl and thinking about the way she acted, and Dillon seemed to find her familiar and... 

Her eyes widened. "Oh god..." She covered her mouth with her hand and gasped. 

"Religious figures have nothing to do with Ranger Green's condition. It is all Venjix's actions." 

"...How? How did Venjix...do that to him?" 

"In layman's terms, the nanobots that were deployed into Ranger Green's body were programmed to target numerous random chromosomes and to alter them; one of the chromosomes dealt with one's gender." 

"Oh god...he looked so uncomfortable around us today..." 

"Religious figures have nothing to do with how uncomfortable he was. He insisted that he stay in the lab after he found out about his affliction; I've only agreed to it to ensure his safety and mental well-being." 

"Is he okay?" 

"He's physically stable, and he's gradually become more mentally stable over time. He was not thrilled to discover his affliction and was highly emotional about it in the beginning." 

"I'd believe that. Poor Ziggy." 

"He has adjusted quite well to the situation, though. Even decided to reveal himself earlier today, but found that you had all left." 

"He seemed so nervous and scared when Scott and I got there." 

"Ranger Green had expressed concerns regarding the males of our group, citing that they would be…’oogling’ him, to use his words." 

Summer stifled a laugh; of all the things to be worried about, being stared at was his biggest concern? 

"Well he shouldn't go with Dillon tomorrow, then, right? He didn't say he was uncomfortable with me, did he?" 

"We have established that Ranger Black's vehicle is the best combination of speed and defense. Your vehicle is all speed, no defense. Ranger Green's vehicle is hardly better; a slight advantage of defense with a great loss of speed." 

"His vehicle?" 

"The domed scooter outside. I did not question where he acquired it, or how, but I'm certain that neither answer will be short nor legal." 

"Oh. Well, I want to help out anyways. Make him feel more comfortable." 

"He will be fine. He even insisted yesterday to travel with Ranger Black." 

"Oh..." Summer looked away. "Well, what should I do, then?" 

"Nothing. Nothing at all. This is all up to Ranger Black and Ranger Green." 

Summer gave a determined look, one of defiance. Dr. K knew exactly what that meant, and she knew there was little she could do to stop her. She ignored her and continued her surveillance. 

Ranger Green looked unusually peaceful and serene on the couch... 

\-----

Ziggy cheerily popped his head in as Dr. K finished her call with Col. Truman. 

"Is this the escort you mentioned?" 

"Yes, this is the escort." Dr. K replied. 

"Good. Your request has been made, and they responded that they will find the sample drawn and ready for transport in an hour." 

"That is good news. Thank you." 

"Anything to keep Project Ranger up and running, Dr. K." He cut the feed, leaving Dr. K and Ziggy alone. 

"Your timing was very beneficial, Ziggy." She replied. 

"You're calling me by name again." Ziggy teased. 

"You are currently not the true operator of my Series Green technology, therefore I can't call you by that." She looked away. "I lied on the hospital bed last night, and that thought came to me. Until you are fully restored to the person the Series Green morpher recognizes as its operator, I have no need to refer to you as Ranger Green." 

"Semantics, semantics." He teased. "So, you took my advice." 

"I was at a loss while wondering what avenues to venture on while I waited for morning, so I lied back on the bed in a prone state, as you suggested, for a period of fifteen minutes. I then came to the conclusion I stated, as well as a few other things. It was almost as beneficial as you stated; I should probably try it again with a longer period of time, but I will have to find the time to do so." 

"I'm glad it helped you out." Ziggy smiled. 

"What do you want?" She bluntly asked, sitting down at her main desk. 

"I had the most wonderful dream." 

"And?" 

"You wanna hear about it?" 

"No." 

"It's a great dream!" 

"I don't care. Dreams are irrelevant." 

"It has to do with today. In fact, it has a lot to do with today." 

Dr. K sighed. "What is it?" She queried in a deflated tone. 

"Well, I dreamed that you found a way to fix my morpher so that it erased the old me, so that I could use it like, like this." 

"That's impossible, but go on." She looked up from her screen. 

"Well, you had just erased the data and I hadn't put my new data in, right? But I brought my morpher with me. So, I got in a fight with Tenaya, and I just gave up. I threw a Series Green Morpher at her and she took it and used it for herself." 

"Are you suggesting that you want to quit and give the morpher to Tenaya?" 

"Ah! I said ‘a Series Green Morpher’, not ‘the Series Green Morpher’." Dr. K gave him a questioning look. "For someone so into semantics, I'm surprised you missed that." He teased. 

"You mean you want to give her a decoy." 

"Not just a decoy, I want to get her back." 

"So a boobytrapped decoy." 

"Exactly!" Ziggy exclaimed. 

"That is certainly an interesting idea, and it might help if you find yourself trapped. What kind of idea do you have in mind?" 

"Oh, lemme tell you, this one's perfect..." Ziggy approached the desk and leaned in. 

\-----

Ziggy walked out of the lab, his left hand in his pocket. "Hey Dillon, the parcel's ready." 

"So, where are we going?" Dillon asked, looking up. Summer looked up and watched Ziggy walk past; he was less nervous than he was yesterday, she noticed. She gave him a soft smile as he looked over at her, and he quickly looked away. 

"Dr. K gave me coordinates for you to follow on this paper." Ziggy replied, handing Dillon a sheet of paper. Dillon looked down at it, then nodded once he had memorized it. 

"Alright, let's get going." Dillon gave a soft smile as he got in and opened the door for Ziggy. 

Ziggy sighed and sat down in the front seat, slamming the door shut as Dillon started up his car. 

"Good luck!" Summer cheerily smiled as she opened the Garage's door and the duo drove off to their destination. 

\-----

Ziggy sat silently in the passenger seat, picking at dirt in-between his nails. They had started growing faster than he remembered, and it worried him slightly. He began chewing on his right index fingernail, giving a worried look. 

Dillon looked over at a stoplight, giving a light frown. He thought of something to say to somehow erase her worried look, and he blurted out the first thing on his mind. 

"You like music?" 

Ziggy looked up at him. "Hm?" 

Dillon realized the daftness of his statement, and quickly reworded it. "Music...do you...wanna listen to it?" 

"Nah." Ziggy looked away. 

"...Do you wanna talk, then?" 

"About what?" 

"Uh...anything, I guess." 

"Didn't think this out?" 

"No." 

Ziggy just nodded. He thought for a moment as Dillon began accelerating again, then came up with what he thought was the perfect question. 

"So, ugh...this Ziggy guy...he a friend of yours?" 

"Yeah. Good friend. Funny as hell. Pisses everyone else off, and it's fun to watch him do that." 

"...Oh." 

"Why do you ask?" 

Ziggy panicked. "Just wondering. You seem like you're close." 

"Well, he's...he's a good friend. He just has the same kind of luck I do, the bad kind." 

"You don't seem like you have bad luck..." 

"I do, trust me." 

Ziggy looked away, deciding not to argue the point. 

"...Have we met before?" Dillon suddenly asked as he rounded a corner, driving deeper into the heart of the city. 

"No, why?" Ziggy nervously replied. 

"Nothing, then." 

"Do you feel like we've met before or something?" 

"...Yeah, a little." 

"Oh. Well, I don't think we've met before. Sorry." 

"No, not your fault." 

After a minute or so of silence, Ziggy looked up and reached for the radio idly. Dillon grabbed his wrist and gave him a look. 

"Nobody touches my radio." He stated in a matter-of-fact tone. He let Ziggy's wrist go and Ziggy rubbed it softly. 

Ziggy looked down the road and saw the hospital. "There. Right there." 

Dillon gave Ziggy a look, then looked at the slip of paper with the coordinates and his mini- map of Corinth. The strange and familiar girl was right; it was a hospital they were going to. Dillon still had no clue what he was delivering. 

"Okay, just park somewhere close. Anywhere close...well, not the walkway, because the guards're crazy about that around here, but anywhere in the parking lot, but close by." 

Dillon gave him a strange look, then parked his car near the walkway and looked at Ziggy. "I'll be right here. Make sure whatever you're getting is nice and secure, because I'm gonna be driving very fast on the way back." He grinned impishly. Ziggy smiled; it was turning out to be a lot less awkward than he thought. 

\-----

Summer walked into the Lab to find Dr. K energetically playing a frantic song on the violin, standing in front of the main screen. Despite her physically involved playing, she appeared to be attempting to hide her emotion as she stared intensely at the monitors, ignoring Summer outright. 

Summer looked at the screens around the room reacting to the song she was playing; while the main computer shifted through the zords and rapidly went through a full maintenance check, the secondary screens went through a full scan of the Ranger suits' power levels and schematics, testing them for efficiency. 

Summer stood and watched her play, the tears welling up in the violinist's eyes. After the song seemed to hit a crescendo, Dr. K suddenly stopped. 

"Is there something you need, Ranger Yellow?" 

"...I'm a little worried about Ziggy." 

"He will be fine. You should not worry." Dr. K blinked, trying to rid her eyes of the semi- formed tears. 

"I think I would if you were practicing what you preached." 

"What do you mean by that?" Dr. K looked at her. 

"You look more worried than I am." 

"I am not worried, Ranger Yellow." 

"Then why are you crying?" 

"None of your business." 

"...Okay." Summer nodded, knowing that she wasn't going to get an answer. 

Flynn walked in, as did Scott. "Hey Doc, how's Ziggy?" Scott asked. 

"Ranger Green is fine." She looked back at the screens. 

"He's with Dillon." Summer stated. 

"How did he get out outside?" Scott asked. Flynn seemed to have a pensive look on his face, then his eyes widened. 

"You've got to be kidding me..." He muttered. Summer nodded no. 

"What?" Scott asked, looking at both of them. 

"Are you serious?" Flynn asked, looking at the girls. 

"Dead serious." Summer replied. 

"The poor lad..." 

"What? What's going on?" Scott demanded. 

"The girl is Ziggy!" Summer and Flynn replied simultaneously. 

It took only a moment for the concept to sink in for Scott, and when it did, he gave a disgusted look. "Oh man..." 

"That's why I told you this morning to stop looking at her ass." Summer commented. 

"He was right..." Dr. K muttered to herself. 

"Oh man...so we just tossed Ziggy and Dillon into a car together, huh?" Scott asked, pinching the top of the bridge of his nose while clenching his eyes shut, trying to stop the ensuing headache from forming. 

"Yup." 

"And Ziggy's a girl. In Dillon's car." 

"And what are you insinuating, Ranger Red?" Dr. K asked, sounding disturbed. 

"Nothing, nothing...just...we should check up on them every ten minutes or so." 

Summer sighed. "I'm going to help out." She began walking out of the Lab. 

"We'll come with you." Flynn replied, tailing her. 

"This's so weird..." Scott muttered, following the two out. 

\-----

Ziggy walked out with a small parcel box containing a tightly sealed vial of his blood. He spotted Dillon's car, but Dillon wasn't in it. Ziggy became worried, and looked around, trying to spot some kind of life. After a minute, he cautiously walked towards Dillon's car. 

Tenaya popped out from behind a shrub and grinned. As she popped up, Dillon tackled her to the ground and he looked over at Ziggy. 

"Get in the car!" He shouted. Ziggy panicked and jumped into the car, sticking the parcel into the glove compartment and peering out the window. 

"Let me go!" Tenaya shouted, flailing to get out from under him. Dillon forcefully picked her up and stood her up. 

"Nice try, Tenaya, but not this time." 

"You are not important! The Green Ranger is mine!" 

Dillon's eyes widened. "What've you done with Ziggy?" 

"Why don't you ask him yourself?" Tenaya used his moment of shock to kick him in the face and pull out of his grasp. "Oh Green Raaaaaanger...come out and plaaaaaaaaaay..." Tenaya singsonged. 

Ziggy whimpered, then reached into his left pocket before sliding out of the open car window. 

"About time you manned up." Tenaya grinned. 

"If that was a pun, it was a horrible pun...and a mean pun at that." Ziggy countered in an annoyed tone. 

"I wanted to provide the moment a touch of irony." Tenaya grinned. Dillon merely stared at Ziggy in confusion. 

"...Ziggy?" Dillon weakly called out. Ziggy looked at him, but said nothing before focusing on Tenaya. 

"How touching; he's worried about you. I'm getting ill just watching you two." She took a demanding pose. "Now, do you have what I want or not?" 

Ziggy held out the Series Green Morpher replica that Dr. K had built him. "Just take it and leave me alone. It's been fully reprogrammed, too; you can make it yours." 

"What're you doing?" Dillon shouted, getting up. 

Ziggy looked over at Dillon. "Dr. K reprogrammed it so if we couldn't find the solution to this, I could still help out in the team...but I can't do this anymore. I really can't. You're my friend; probably one of the bestest friends I've ever had in my life, but I can't." 

"Don't just give it to Tenaya then! Dr. K will replace you!" Dillon replied in a panicked tone, getting up. Tenaya activated her personal hand blaster and shot him in the leg, dropping him to one knee as he tried to apply pressure to the wound. It wasn't deep, but it had handily disabled the bio-mechanical motor, making walking with any efficiency near-impossible. He shakily stood back up, and she shot him in the other leg in the same spot, properly dropping him. 

"Dillon!" Ziggy sneered as he looked over at Tenaya. 

"Those were warning shots. Give me the morpher, or the next shot will be through the center of his skull." 

"Fine! Take it!" Ziggy threw it at her, and she grabbed it. She laughed maniacally and strapped it to her wrist. 

"Finally! The final evolution of mankind, bonded with the last bastion of hope for humanity! I, Tenaya 7, will become the strongest lifeform on the planet, and I will use the full power of the Ranger technology to destroy you pathetic humans from the inside out!" She laughed hysterically. "Green Ranger, you truly are as pathetic as I've thought you to be, but I must thank you for this simple transaction; perhaps Venjix will let you live as a cybernetic slave for all of eternity when we've taken over the city." 

She hit the switch, and a soft jolt of electromagentic waves shot through her, temporarily paralyzing her entire body. 

"Did you really think I'd give you the actual morpher?" Ziggy commented, grinning widely. He then ran to Dillon's side and slowly tried to help him up. 

"You've got a lot of explaining to do." Dillon muttered as Ziggy failed to pick him up. 

"I know, I know." Ziggy tiredly replied. Dillon slowly slid himself towards the car, his legs still rendered immobile from the pain; the metallic components simply refused to shift from their previous positions. 

Dillon scooted over to the driver's side, and Ziggy gave his best intimidating pose. 

"You can't drive like that, Dillon." 

"Well, I can't let you drive!" Ziggy frowned. "No offense, but I've seen you drive, and this's my baby. I'm not letting you kill us in my car if I can help it." Ziggy sighed and crossed his arms. 

"You can hardly move your legs! How do you expect to drive when you can't push the gas or the brakes?" 

"Easy, I'll shift in my seat." Dillon reached up and grabbed the door handle, smacking his side with the door in the process. Ziggy ran over and began dragging Dillon towards the backseat. 

"Ziggy..." Dillon whined. "You're not half as annoying and forceful normally. No need to start now." 

Ziggy dropped Dillon's arms and took a step back. "...I think I'm doing that mom sort of thing...the whole ‘worrying about someone's health’ thing...totally not on purpose. Ugh." 

Dillon nearly heard a chorus of angels as he recognized the sounds of the other Rangers' vehicle engines approaching. 

"Guys! Help me!" Ziggy shouted, flailing slightly. Dillon placed his face against his right palm. "Dillon got shot in the legs, and I can't carry him!" 

"What about Tenaya?" Scott asked as Summer got off her bike and helped Dillon into his car. 

"Oh, she's fine. Someone can just hogtie her to something and drive her to the outside of the city or something. She's not going anywhere for a bit." Ziggy smiled. "My plan really worked well this time." 

"Plan?" Summer asked. 

"Yeah, my plan. I had a plan. See that fake Series Green Morpher? Totally my idea. Why does she have it? Well, let's say I just gave her a little ‘shock therapy’." Ziggy grinned and nodded his head in a display of self-congratulating as Flynn picked her up and carried her over to his Hummer. 

Dr. K's voice came in over the group's morphers. "I have noticed that you three are near Ranger Black. Is Ziggy with him?" 

"Yes, Dillon and Ziggy are here. Dillon's been wounded badly, even though the wounds are superficial, at best." Scott reported. 

"Ranger Red, I would like you to escort Ranger Black back to the lab-" 

"What? No!" Dillon protested. Dr. K continued on talking without acknowledging him. 

"And Ranger Yellow will escort Ziggy and the parcel back to the lab." 

"You got it, Doc. Red, out." Scott grinned. "You heard the doc. C'mon Dillon." 

"No, no, no...I'd rather ride with Flynn." 

"Flynn's already got an extra rider." Scott gestured towards Flynn's hummer, where he was tying a barely resisting Tenaya to his roof. 

"Aye, I got her, chief!" 

"Just let Dr. K know what you're doing with her." 

"I'm just going to go out and dump her out there in the desert." 

"Sounds like a plan. Just be careful." Scott smiled. 

"Flynn? Can I ride with you?" Dillon asked, sounding desperate. 

"You need medical attention, Dillon. You need to go back and get fixed up." Summer stated. 

"Yeah...please just go with him? Please?" Ziggy gave him a pleading look. 

Dillon looked up at him and gave him a humored look. "You're doing it again." 

"Damn." Ziggy gave an annoyed look. 

Dillon smiled. "Fine, fine...but you're carrying me to your Hot Rod of Death, Scott."


	6. The Cleaner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's just one loose end left to tie up...and one member of the team is more than ready to clean house.

"Just go for it, Doc; I'm all ready." Ziggy commented. "I mean, you've already tasered me and prepped me and-" 

"I did not taser you. I deactivated the nanobots currently in your system, and they have yet to filter out. I cannot start the procedure until I am sure that they are all out first." 

"...Can you at least dope me up so that I don't feel anything when you jab me with the giant needle? It really hurt the last time." 

"If you want me to. I was going to wait to initiate the painkiller injection sequence after the nanobot injection sequence had started, but if you wish for me to reverse the order, I will." 

"Please?" 

"As you wish." 

As she punched a few keys, Ziggy cleared his throat. "Um..." 

"Yes?" 

"...Could you play me a song?" 

"You mean on a nearby radio? Or, do you mean to play you a song on my violin?" 

"Violin, yeah." 

"Why?" 

"Because you're good at it, and sometimes I use music to sleep when I'm stressed out. I'd rather hear you play something than try to think of something while the nanobots are scrambling my DNA around again. That was probably the most painful thinking I've ever done." 

Dr. K paused for a moment, unsure of how to respond. She decided to go for the more subdued approach. "Fine. Do you have any particular piece in mind?" 

"No, I'm not picky." 

"Okay...do you like Paganini?" Her eyes lit up slightly. 

"Is that a violin guy?" 

"Fine, I'll pick." She finished typing, setting in motion the entire set of procedures on autopilot before getting up to grab her violin. 

As soon as she began to play, the sedatives began pumping into his system and he took a deep breath. 

Nearly halfway through, Dillon woke up as he naturally did from his body's own sleep deficiency and walked down into the Garage. Through the wall, he could hear the violin shrieking, and no matter how piercing the sound was, he still smiled anyways. He curled up on the couch after wolfing down something from the fridge and let the music relax him enough to sleep. 

~The next day~ 

It was halfway through the afternoon when K noticed Ziggy stirring. She stood up, pushing her hair out of her eyes and walked in. 

"Good morning, Operator Series Green." She said warmly, folding her hands around her waist. Ziggy slowly opened his eyes, which shone a dull, soft brown. 

"Am I me again?" He asked softly, smiling softly as he recognized his own voice, even though it sounded tired and strained. 

"That is a question that I believe only you yourself can answer. You should allow the painkillers to wear off before you get up this time." 

"I wanna sleep..." Ziggy muttered. "Can you pull all the stupid heart monitors and crap off me, first?" 

"No need to use vulgarity. I will do that when you wake up again." 

"Fine." Ziggy sighed. As Dr. K turned to walk away, he smiled. "Hey." 

"Yes, Operator Series Green?" She did not bother to turn around. 

"Thanks for the music. It helped me go to sleep faster. I don't think I felt a lot of pain before I blacked out." 

Dr. K was unsure of how to respond once more. She closed her eyes and took a long breath. "I am glad that my violin playing was satisfactory and useful." 

"More than satisfactory, actually." 

"...Thank you." She walked out, turning a soft shade of pinkish red. 

She spotted her violin and smirked softly. She picked it up and slowly began playing the song she had played for Ziggy, a small smile on her face. She faced away from the blast doors and continued to play, her thoughts floating off into a sea of ivory towers laced in ivy, standing on the edge of a cliff overlooking the vast sea... 

"Doctor?" Summer called out, breaking K's reverie and concentration. 

"Can I help you, Series Yellow?" 

"That song, you played it last night, too." 

"How did you know?" She pulled away from Summer, the need to protect herself growing stronger. 

"You were playing it over and over last night, tweaking it constantly." 

"Oh." Dr. K relaxed slightly. "I have not played it in ages, and my accuracy in playing it perfectly is not optimal, despite Ranger Green's assertion that it is ‘more than satisfactory’." She quickly changed her demeanor, giving her all to sound demeaning. "He's never heard anyone else play it, obviously. Doesn't surprise me; he's more the mindless music type, the kind that doesn't take a classical genius to understand and fully appreciate." 

"Well, I think you've gotten better with it over the night." 

"Thank you." 

Dillon walked in with Ziggy's uniform, still having a noticeable limp in his step. "Ah, Ranger Series Black, you are back on two feet. It is pleasing to see that." 

"I'll be fine. The more I walk, the better it feels." Dillon replied. "Flynn rattled on about a short in some micro-piston cluster that needs to be stimulated through manual motion or some crap like that. I wasn't listening." Dillon rolled his eyes. "Can I go in there and give these to Ziggy?" 

"No." Dillon narrowed his eyes. "Ranger Green has resumed his recovery period by sleeping." 

"I'm just gonna go in there and set it down." Dillon stated, limping past her. 

Ziggy opened his eyes, then smiled as he saw Dillon walking in. "Hey..." 

Dillon smiled back. "Hey, Ziggy. I brought you your uniform so you don't have to run around in that hospital robe you've got on." 

"Thanks." Ziggy smiled weakly. "So I take it that I'm back to my own handsome self...?" 

"You look like plain old Ziggy to me." Dillon replied. 

"Oh, good. How's my hair?" 

"It's fine." Dillon gave a humored look. "I'm just gonna limp around the Garage. You get your rest." 

"Okay..." Ziggy sighed softly and closed his eyes. As Dillon walked out, he cleared his throat. 

"Dillon?" 

"Huh?" Dillon stopped and turned around to face Ziggy. 

"Why'd she stop playing?" 

"Who? Doc K?" 

"Yeah." 

"When? Just now?" 

"Yeah." 

"Summer started talking to her." 

"...Oh." 

"...Do you want me to ask her to play it again or something?" 

"If you could." 

"Fine." Dillon gave a worried look, then walked out. 

"Hey Doc, Ziggy wants the noise back on because he can't sleep." Dillon commented without prying his eyes from the door as he limped out into the Garage.

\-----

The alarm went off, waking everyone in the facility up, including Ziggy. He shot up and began pulling the medical equipment off of him then leapt out of bed, wobbling slightly as his body reintroduced him to his own center of gravity. He then made a wobbly dash for the bathroom, grabbing his clothes along the way. 

"The Needlebot has re-entered the city," Dr. K proclaimed as the crew sleepily marched into the Lab. "thought I'm not sure why it's trying to invade this late at night." 

"Venjix's trying out night missions, probably." Scott replied, yawning softly afterwards. 

"He's entered the Gamma Quadrant, and-" 

"Alright! Where are we going? I'm ready to go!" Ziggy shouted, drawing attention to himself as he walked out from the other room, looking ready for battle. 

"Ugh...Gamma Quadrant." Dr. K replied, sounding surprised. 

"Somebody got some rest." 

"I heard ‘Needlebot’ and wanted to just rip it apart. So! Let's go!" A vicious look filled his visage as he walked out of the Lab. 

"Somebody's in a weird mood." Scott stated. 

"At least he's not sobbing uncontrollably." Dr. K replied. "Now go." 

\-----

Ziggy practically leaped out of the passenger side of Flynn's Hummer and ran out to confront the Venjix invasion himself. "What, no Grinders?" 

Tenaya gave a shocked look. "Well well, Green Ranger, I see you're back to normal...or as normal as you could ever get." 

"C'mon! I wanted to crush some Grinders, too! I feel like I'm being ripped off here on my first fight back!" 

Tenaya sighed. "Fine...Grinders..." She lazily summoned a small wave of Grinders as Ziggy strapped his morpher to his wrist. 

"That's more like it!" He grinned. "RPM, get in gear!" A green light enveloped him, shielding him in the Series Green armor. "Perfect! Let's go!" He summoned up his Turbo Axe and charged with a battle-worthy yell. 

The other four Rangers stood in front of their vehicles, watching the fight in awe. 

"...Shouldn't we go out there and help Ziggy?" Summer asked. 

"Let the boy fight; he's had a stressful few days, and he probably just needs to let some steam off." Flynn replied. 

"Well, we should at least give him some back-up," Scott stated. "Like, pick off whatever Grinder he hasn't already hacked apart." 

"I'll take Tenaya." Dillon tiredly volunteered. 

"And someone should keep an eye on him with the Needlebot." Scott added. 

"I will." Flynn offered. 

"Alright. Everyone morph and move out." Scott ordered softly. 

Ziggy made a beeline for the Needlebot, growling and yelling as he swung the Turbo Axe as hard as he could. The blow hacked the Needlebot's right arm completely off, surprising Ziggy. "Oh wow. I didn't know I could do that..." 

The Needlebot thrusted with its left palm, and Ziggy jumped back, dodging the blow. "Oh ho! Not this again!" He expertly blocked several blows, then spun around, the axe out in front of him. Sparks flew everywhere, lighting up the night sky. 

Tenaya ran to stop Ziggy, but Dillon blocked her way. "Nope, you're dealing with me tonight. Wanna dance?" 

She took a quick swing at him and he dodged. "Out of my way!" 

"Not happening." 

"Stupid Ranger!" Tenaya growled, swinging again. 

Ziggy stopped spinning and steadied his standing pose, spinning the axe in his grip like a tennis racket. "You have no idea how angry I am right now!" Ziggy shouted, driving his axe into the robot's chest. He pulled it out and adjusted his grip. "You made my life a living hell!" He completely hacked off the other arm then kicked it over. "You have no idea how good this feels right now!" 

He kicked the armless robot again, then swung the axe into its head as it tried to get back up. The last slice hacked open circuitry, and the machine started sparking as Ziggy tossed his axe aside and jumped on top of it, punching it repeatedly. 

The sparks shot up higher, and Flynn knew what was coming next. He activated his time freeze and dashed over, grabbing Ziggy and running as far away as possible before his power ran out. The inevitable large explosion erupted as soon as Flynn's power wore off, and Flynn could only breathe a sigh of relief. 

"Thanks Flynn." Ziggy slapped him roughly on the back, then stood up. "Okay, now we got gotta wait for it to grow to forty stories in height, and get back everything I supposedly just destroyed-slash-hacked off." He stood patiently, and in a few moments his request was fulfilled as the Needlebot shot up in height, regaining both its arms in the process. "What did I say, huh?" He then clapped loudly. "Okay! Zord time, everyone!" 

Dr. K just stared at her screens, in awe of the situation unfolding outside. "I'm...downmorphing your Zords...as we speak..." She commented, completely stunned. 

The Rangers summoned their Zords and formed the Zenith Megazord. Ziggy exhaled deeply then tightly gripped his steering wheel. "I wish that hole in its head was still there; we could've just fired straight in it and destroyed this scrap heap and gone home!" 

"Ziggy...I hate to say this, but you need to calm a little." Dillon commented, patting Ziggy on the shoulder. 

"Wish I could...but I'm really enjoying myself. Do you always feel so excited to get into a fight?" 

"Not always. But yeah, most times." 

"Well, if Ziggy wants to finish this thing off, he should lead." Scott stated. 

Dr. K blinked. "Are you certain that this's a good idea, Ranger Red?" 

"Very certain. Go ahead, Ziggy; you lead the fight." 

"Alright!" Ziggy replied in a giddy tone. He steered the Zenith Megazord to block a punch, and Scott followed, causing the others to do the same. Another block, then a quick left hook sent the Needlebot stumbling back. "Okay, no games, just fire the biggest gun we've got!" He transformed the Wheel Blaster and grabbed his checkered Engine Cell. "Engine Cell, activate!" The group followed his lead. "Fire!" 

The Zenith Megazord fired its finishing blast, engulfing the Needlebot in a rainbow of colored lasers, actively blowing it to pieces. 

"Okay! Now, we pose, then we eject!" Ziggy stated. 

"Enough, Ranger Green." Dr. K ordered halfheartedly, giving a soft smile. "All of you, return to the base." 

\-----

Ziggy tiredly slumped out of the Hummer as it came to a complete stop, and he gave a weak smile to Dr. K. Her outfit looked different than normal; rather than her uniform, she wore what appeared to be a pair of flannel pajamas covered in letters of the alphabet underneath her labcoat. Her regular shoes and socks looked odd with them, but she looked more comfortable than usual. 

"Am I correct to assume that you've finally burned off all the excess testosterone in your system, Ranger Green?" She asked softly. 

"If by that, you mean that I'm dead tired and in need of sleep, then yes, I have." He muttered as he wobbled towards the second floor staircase. 

"The painkillers must not have fully worn off yet. I do recommend more rest if that is the case." She cleared her throat. "As for the rest of you, you are all long overdue for a rest, and for a morning training seminar. We will have one at 0800 hours. See you in the morning." 

The group gave a soft groan as she turned around and walked back into the lab. 

She locked the door and smiled, eyeing the leftover bed in the other room. She walked over and lied down, reveling in the concept of lying down on a flat surface while letting her brain slowly shut off, and reveling in the fact that he alone had suggested it. 

She kicked off her shoes and took off her labcoat, getting comfortable before grabbing a remote and pressing the big red button on it, effectively turning off all of the lights in the room. 

After a minute, her eyes shot open as she noticed that Ziggy had left the lights on in the bathroom. She frowned and got up, sighing and feeling overall disappointed. 

\-----

Ziggy kicked off his shoes and flopped face-first on his bed, sighing deeply. As he took his coat off, he heard a rustling, which brought him to his senses.   
He looked around suspiciously, then sat up. Dillon hadn't yet walked in, and the door was closed. He was all alone to indulge in the soon-to-be-revealed truth.   
He pulled the pink tissue paper wrapped trinket from his inner coat pocket, grinning as he delicately opened it. As he got to the inside of the wrapping, delicate articles of clothing fell out, causing Ziggy's eyes to widen. "...Oh wow." He muttered in awe as he held the delicate unmentionables up in front of his face. 

Dillon opened the door and took a step back as Ziggy panicked and hid the silky number behind him. 

"...I hope you're not wearing that." Dillon commented, giving a weirded out look. 

Ziggy turned pale, then red. "No! No, this isn't mine..." He thought for a moment, then held up the pink tissue paper as an explanation. Dillon's eyes widened. 

"You took it out of her closet." He stated, not believing what he was saying. 

"Well...I was curious!" 

"She's gonna kill you, you know." 

"I'll replace it before she finds out." 

Dillon turned as a pair of stamping feet marched through the bottom floor of the Garage. "Well, you have fun with...that...I'm gonna get a drink." 

He turned around and walked out, meeting with Dr. K at the staircase, a death glare plastered on her face. "Good evening, Doc. Nice pj's." She didn't respond as they passed each other. As Dillon reached the kitchen he heard Ziggy shouting from upstairs. 

_"Ah! Oh god! Not the hair!"_

A smirk grew across his face as he opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water. He had to keep from laughing.


End file.
